JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, 25(1): 159–164, 2005 Gilberto Rodrı ´guez 12 May 1929–16 May 2004 ‘‘I have come to appreciate Dr. Rodrı ´guez as a scientist of outstanding merit, whose work is greatly appreciated by his colleagues all over the world ...’’ L. B. Holthuis (in litt., 1972) Gilberto Domingo Rodrı ´guez Ramı ´rez, a member and past Governor for South America of the Crustacean Society (1982–1995), died at age 75, in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 16, 2004. He was born in the same city on May 12, 1929. His early interest in natural history was encouraged by the teachings of Jesuit priests during his primary and high school education in the local Colegio La Salle. In 1955, he obtained the degree of Licenciado en Ciencias at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), and began research on systematic botany. With the sponsorship of the Venezuelan Association for the Advancement of Science (AsoVAC), he managed to travel to the United States the same year, where he was admitted to the University of Miami for a master’s degree in marine biology. As a student in the U.S.A., he was in charge of the Manning-University of Miami South Pacific Expedition (Chile). He successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis ‘‘The marine communities of Margarita Island’’ in 1959. Soon thereafter, he traveled to England and Denmark, as visiting scientist at the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (Plymouth), the Marine Station of the Scottish Marine Biological Association (Millport), and the Marine Laboratory of the University of Copenhagen. Such experi- ence was instrumental in the early development of his professional career. In 1959, Gilberto returned to Venezuela and got involved jointly with Professor Pedro Roa in the foundation of the Oceanographic Institute of the Universidad de Oriente, Cumana ´. He was appointed Deputy Director of this Institute until 1960. That same year he was called to work in the newly established Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Re- search (IVIC), near Caracas, where he pursued research activities, alternating with teaching marine biology in the UCV until the mid-1970s. He started doctoral studies with E. Naylor (Prifygol Cymru University of Wales, Swansea) in December 1968, obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1970 with the dissertation ‘‘Behavioural rhythms in littoral prawns.’’ Gilberto’s research in the early and mid-1960s focused on the Maracaibo System, a vast region that includes Lake Maracaibo, the Straits of Maracaibo, and the Gulf of Venezuela, as well as an extensive basin shared with Colombia. These far-reaching studies dealt with oceanogra- phy, hydrobiology, and ecology of estuaries (Rodrı ´- guez,1963, 1964, 1967, 1969; Rodrı ´guez et al., 1969; 159 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article-abstract/25/1/159/2670524 by guest on 18 June 2020