Peter William Hochachka, OC FRSC (March 9, 1937 – September 16, 2002) was a Canadian professor and zoologist at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
[4] Hochachka did extensive field and laboratory work studying the biochemical basis for mechanisms of adaptation in multiple species and environments, including water (trout, tuna fish, squid, oysters), air (locusts, hummingbirds) and land (turtles, seals, and humans).
[2] Hochachka was considered a world leader in the field of defense mechanisms against low oxygen levels.
These included at least nine expeditions, some of which Hochachka organized, on the National Science Foundation's vessel RV Alpha Helix.
He is the co-author, with George Somero, of Biochemical Adaptation: Mechanism and Process in Physiological Evolution, first published in 1973 and described ten years later as an "overwhelming success".
[10] They published an updated and expanded edition in 1984[10] and a third volume in 2002, which was praised for its outstanding scope,[11][12] "the sheer variety of material covered and the obvious excitement the authors bring to these topics".