History

Dr. David Noakes was one of the founders and enthusiastic supporters of the EEEF Meeting. It is with great sadness that we relay the news of his passing in December 2020. At this year’s EEEF Meeting, we aim to honor David’s legacy in science and mentorship in a tribute, including a collection of memories and photos submitted by conference attendees. Click here to submit your memories and photos of Dr. David Noakes, which will be featured at the virtual conference and on the website. Read below David’s own account of the history of the EEEF Meeting.


I have been asked to say something about the history of the EEEF meetings, and the background to this scientific community. Those of us who have attended previous EEEF meetings know at least something about how we came to be and how we continue to function. The EEEF meetings originated with discussions at a Midwestern Regional Meeting of the Animal Behaviour Society among several of us interested in fish behaviour. Jack Ward agreed to host the meetings, and did so for several years, at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, starting in 1977. Perhaps the only thing normal about our meetings was the name of the city. After Jack Ward’s untimely death, we began the highly successful routine of moving the meetings to different sites. Subsequently, we have met in Guelph (Canada), Beaumont (Texas), Durham (New Hampshire), Flagstaff (Arizona), Seattle (Washington), Victoria (Canada), Albuquerque (New Mexico), Athens (Georgia), Quebec (Canada), Saudarkrokur (Iceland), San Diego (California) and Boston (Massachusetts).

Several things have always distinguished the EEEF meeting. We initiated the meeting because we wanted to foster the development of students, and because we wanted to bring together the full range of people with interests in behaviour, ecology, and evolution of fishes. We have added conservation biology as another theme to our meetings, largely through the efforts of Gene Helfman at the meeting in Georgia. I think the record of our meetings, particularly in the publications from special symposia or entire sessions of previous meetings, speaks for our success (usually in special issues of the journal, Environmental Biology of Fishes). We have always fostered personal contacts, collaboration and creative approaches to science. Our emphasis continues to be on students, and we continue to learn from, and through, them. The EEEF meeting is always dominated by young people, and new ideas.

We have lost valued friends and colleagues over the years. Jack Ward, Gerry FitzGerald, Jan Smith and Bill Rowland are among the most prominent of those who were involved in the organization of our meetings. But we continue to gain new colleagues and so we continue to grow and develop. We are firmly rooted in the past but dedicated to the future. We try to make sure that the meeting moves around to different geographic locations, so that we enable a different group of local people to attend, to show off their research and to let us see the places where they live and carry out their science. We include both marine and freshwater fishes in our meetings, practical and applied research, academic scientists and those from a wide range of private industry, consulting and government agencies. We have no formal organization, no elected officers and no continuing budget. We meet because we are interested in each other and what we are doing. We organize special sessions on topics of current interest, to recognize lifetime contributions of some of us, but mostly to foster the development of students and young colleagues.

David L. G. Noakes, Oregon State University, Feb. 2008, updated April 2009


Previous EEEF Hosts

2018- Western University

2016- Florida State University

2014- Oregon State University

2012- University of Windsor

2010- Simon Fraser University

2008- Boston University

2006- Soka University of America

2004- Icelandic Research Institute and University

2002- Laval University

2000- University of Georgia

1998- University of Washington

1996- University of New Mexico

1994- University of Victoria

1992- University of New Hampshire

1990- Northern Arizona University

1987- Lamar University

1985- University of Guelph

1983- Illinois State University

1981- Illinois State University

1979- Illinois State University

1977- Illinois State University