He attended University College School ("UCS") in London, where his activities included rowing in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
He also played a role in ending the 1970 student riots at OSU (which is chronicled in Woody Hayes' memoir, You Win With People).
In 1991, Colinvaux and Hillis left Ohio State University to take positions with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama.
[3] He left STRI later in the 1990s and, after settling in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, became affiliated with the University of Chicago Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center.
[4] Colinvaux was the author of several books, including Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare: An Ecologist's Perspective (1978), The Fates of Nations: A Biological Theory of History (1980), and the textbook, Ecology (1993).