Kenneth Stafford Norris or Kenneth S. Norris (August 11, 1924 – August 16, 1998) was an American

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their ...

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

, conservationist, and naturalist. Norris did pioneering work on

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

echolocation. His conservation work included helping establish the

University of California Natural Reserve System The University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) is a system of protected areas throughout California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents acros ...

and work towards passage of the

Marine Mammal Protection Act The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) was the first act of the United States Congress to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to wildlife management. Authority MMPA was signed into law on October 21, 1972, by President Richard Nixon ...

. Norris was a professor at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

and

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge ...

Selected bibliography

* *

as editor

References

External links and further reading

*
Kenneth S. Norris, naturalist, cetologist & conservationist, 1924-1998: an oral history biography
'' Interviewed by Randall Jarrell and Irene Reti. Regional History Project, University Library, UC Santa Cruz. 1999 *
Marine Mammal Science
', Oct. 1999, v.15(4). Special issue remembering Dr. Norris.
Photographs of Ken Norris from the UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
1924 births 1998 deaths American marine biologists University of California, Santa Cruz faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty 20th-century American zoologists {{US-zoologist-stub