Born May 4, 1922, New York, New York

Ichthyologist (fish scientist) Eugenie Clark has devoted more than half a century to learning about the lives and behavior of the fish that inhabit the tropical waters of the world. As founder and director (between 1954 and 1967) of the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Florida, she conducted long-term studies of captive sharks, creatures long feared as vicious man-eaters at sea. Performing behavioral experiments, she found that these lower vertebrates are not the “stupid” predators that they were believed to be; they have surprising memory and learning capabilities, and can be taught to press underwater targets of different shapes and colors to obtain food. During the following decades, Clark would continue to study the shark—in its own habitat—using scuba gear and, later, deep-sea submersibles (underwater craft). She would learn that few of the 250 species of shark...