Congratulations to Dr Jeff Leis; Ichthyologist, senior fellow and now honorary member of ISJ!
Dr Jeff Leis, Senior Fellow at the Australian Museum, has recently become an Honorary Member of the Ichthyological Society of Japan (ISJ).
Just a few weeks ago, Dr Jeff Leis received some wonderful news; that he was to be awarded honorary membership of the ISJ. And this is no small feat - membership is awarded to individuals for their significant contribution to the Ichthyological Society and/or ichthyology. Although there is no fixed number of Honorary Members to the ISJ, throughout the history of ISJ the number of Honorary Members has been less than ten. An extremely prestigious award; a warm congratulations, Jeff!
This distinguished position is also held by John Paxton, Senior Fellow at the AM. Established in 1968, the Ichthyological Society of Japan is an academic society with the objective of advancing and disseminating the study of ichthyology; the ISJ also publishes four volumes of the international journal, Ichthyological Research annually in English.
Australian Museum Senior Fellow Jeff Leis, in Opunohu Bay, Moorea.
Image: Suzanne Bullock© Suzanne Bullock
Jeff is an avid researcher with a research focus area on larval fishes and early-life history of marine fishes. However, Jeff holds expertise in many ichthyology research areas, including fish taxonomy, dispersal, biogeography, behavioural ecology, development, community assembly, sensory biology and functional morphology. As a graduate of the University of Arizona and the University of Hawaii, Jeff worked in California prior to coming to Australia in 1979, where he worked at the Australian Museum, retiring as a Senior Principal Research Scientist in 2014; after which time, Jeff became a Senior Fellow. He now resides in Hobart, where he is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. Jeff is also known for his courses and workshops in larval fish identification, serving on numerous advisory boards for governments, NGOs and journals, and his mentoring of graduate students. In 2015, Jeff received the most prestigious award in fish systematics, the Robert H. Gibbs, Jr. Memorial Award, in recognition of his enormous body of work on larval fishes and fish systematics. Prior to this Jeff was awarded the Bleeker Award of excellence in research in Indo-Pacific fish ecology. Much of this research was conducted at the AM's Lizard Island Research Station.
Jeff Leis in Miyake Jima, Japan in July 1985.
Image: Suzanne Bullock© Suzanne Bullock
Congratulations again to Dr Jeff Leis on this prestigious honour, and we cannot wait to see what's next in store for Jeff's amazing career!
Jeff Leis with students and senior Japanese researchers at the larval-fish identification workshop, that Jeff helped run in Tokyo in 2009. Keiichi Matsuura, one of 4 Japanese Honorary Members of the ISJ, is pictured at Jeff's left.
Image: Courtesy of Keiichi Matsuura© Courtesy of Keiichi Matsuura
Jeff Leis (first row, second from the left) and colleagues pictured on a collecting trip, 2013 Yoron Island, Japan.
Image: Courtesy of Hiroyuki Motomura© Courtesy of Hiroyuki Motomura
