Perry Webster Gilbert (December 1, 1912 – October 15, 2000) was a professor at Cornell University, shark scientist, and former Director of Mote Marine Laboratory.
When Gilbert was a child, the family would frequently spend time on the seashore, developing in him an early appreciation for marine life that would be reignited in his academic career.
As Gilbert continued his education at Branford High School, he spent his free time collecting wildlife specimens, including butterflies and moths, often studying books on them.
He also spent his summers working at a cemetery digging graves and mowing lawns, during which time he learned much from the sexton's father about budding roses, grafting plants, and raising evergreens.
[2] In 1936, Gilbert decided to pursue his Ph.D. and with financial support from a Cramer Fellowship he started his doctoral research on comparative anatomy of burrowing and terrestrial sciurid mammals at Cornell University.
[2] Under the advisement of mammalogist William J. Hamilton II, Gilbert achieved his doctorate in 1940 and was immediately hired as in instructor in Cornell's Department of Zoology by Chairman Benjamin Young.
[2] Robert Hueter, Senior Scientist, Director of the Center of Shark Research, and Perry W. Gilbert Chair in Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, has written that "Thousands of professionals in the biological sciences today - and certainly those in comparative anatomy, functional morphology, neurobiology and even ichthyology - can trace their roots to some relationship with Perry Gilbert the teacher".
[3] The couple began their married life in Ithaca on Linden Avenue in Collegetown, later moved to a farm on Coddington Road, and eventually settled on the Parkway.
[4] The family also owned a farmhouse on the Danby Hills, known as "the Nob" which served as a seasonal vacation retreat as well as a site for social gatherings of Gilbert's colleagues, students, and friends.
[1] He worked with Dr. George Corner at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and ultimately this fellowship resulted in several publications including an illustrated monograph on the origin and development of the human extrinsic eye muscles.
[2] In 1957, Gilbert and his colleague F. G. Wood made a breakthrough while conducting research at Marineland in Florida, and inventing an anesthetic named MS 222 that could be sprayed into the gills of large sharks, ultimately publishing a widely cited paper on the subject in Science in 1957.
In 1957, Sid Galler of ONR approached Gilbert and asked him to serve as the chair of the American Institute of Biological Sciences' ONR-funded Shark Research Panel.
[2] Gilbert's early work with ONR also resulted in the publication of the edited volume "Sharks and Survival" (1963), a collection of peer-reviewed papers with contributions from experts in the field.
[2] According to Robert Hueter, "practically every thread of contemporary research on the biology and behavior of sharks since 1960 can be traced back to the ONR program guided by the scholarly leadership of Perry Gilbert".
[1] Funding from ONR allowed for the construction of a large, elaborate shark-holding facility, which provided new opportunities for the observation and study of life sharks in safe and controlled conditions for the first time.
He used contacts that he had cultivated over his 30-year career to help boost the reputation and breadth of research in the facility, often soliciting experts from other universities, museums, and the National Institutes of Health.
[1] Gilbert took on the planning, design, local politicking, and fundraising for the move, and oversaw the creation of Mote's current facility on City Island in Sarasota, Florida.
When he retired from Cornell, he was honored with a symposium of distinguished speakers, a banquet, and the establishment of an endowed "Perry Gilbert Lectureship in Comparative Anatomy and Behavior".