Dr. F. G. Hochberg

Dr. F.G. (Eric) Hochberg received his PhD in Zoology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971. Following a 9-month stint sailing across the Pacific he returned to teaching positions at the University of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island and the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. He joined the Museum staff as a Curator in 1973.

Eric is one of the world's leading experts on several unusual small groups of parasites that live exclusively in the kidneys or on the gills of cephalopod mollusks (octopuses, cuttlefishes & squids). In addition, he works on the taxonomy, distribution, biology, and behavior of octopuses and squids. Over the years he has studied and published papers on a diversity of marine and terrestrial invertebrate groups including: parasites of marine animals (protozoans, dicyemids, orthonectids & flatworms); cnidarians (hydroids, octocorals & corals); annelids (earthworms); mollusks (land snails & slugs); crustaceans (terrestrial isopods); and brachiopods (lamp shells).

Much of his early work was conducted aboard oceanographic cruises or through SCUBA diving. In 1971 he was an aquanaut-scientist in the Tektite II program and lived underwater for 3 weeks in the Virgin Islands where he conducted research.

He is a charter member and co-founder of three societies: Western Society of Malacologists (WSM; 1968); Nature Printing Society (NPS; 1976); and the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC; 1981).

Relevant to the biota of the Gulf of Mexico, Dr. Hochberg has published the following:

Hochberg, F. G., M. Nixon and R. B. Toll. 1992. Order Octopoda Leach, 1818, Pp. 213–279 in M. J. Sweeney, C. F. E. Roper, K. M. Mangold, M. R. Clarke, and S. v. Boletzky, eds. “Larval” and juvenile cephalopods: a manual for their identification. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 513: 1–282.

Turgeon, D. D, J. F. Quinn, Jr., A. E. Bogan, E. V. Coan, F. G. Hochberg, W. G. Lyons, P. M. Mikkelsen, R. J. Neves, C. F. E. Roper, G. Rosenberg, B. Roth, A. Scheltema, F. G. Thompson, M. Vecchione, and J. D. Williams. 1998. Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks, 2nd ed. American Fisheries Society, Special Publication 26, Bethesda Maryland. 526 pp. + CD.