William Frank Gilly is an American biologist specializing in the study of

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

s. He works at ''Gilly Lab'',

Hopkins Marine Station Hopkins Marine Station is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located ninety miles south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove, California (United States) on the Monterey Peninsula, adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium ...

, in

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

, as a professor of biology, at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and was involved with the television special ''

The Future is Wild ''The Future Is Wild'' (also referred to by the acronym ''FIW'') is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. ''The Future Is Wild'' explores the ecosystems and wildlife of thre ...

''.

Early life

Gilly received a BSE (Electrical Engineering, 1972) from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and a Ph.D. (Physiology and Biophysics, 1978) from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. He had additional training at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

at Woods Hole.

Career

Over the last 30 years he has contributed to the basic understanding of

electrical excitability Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

in nerve and muscle cells in a wide range of organisms ranging from brittle-stars to mammals. Much of this work employed the giant axon system of the squid as an experimental model system for molecular and biophysical approaches. Additional physiological studies made in the living squid revealed unexpected complexities in how the giant axon system controls escape responses, and how mechanisms governing that control are subject to modification by environmental factors like temperature and during normal development.

Humboldt squid

Gilly's current research program on squid concentrates on the behavior and physiology of ''Dosidicus gigas'', the jumbo or

Humboldt squid The Humboldt squid (''Dosidicus gigas''), also known as jumbo squid or jumbo flying squid (EN), and Pota in Peru or Jibia in Chile (ES) is a large, predatory squid living in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the only known species of the genus ''D ...

. Fieldwork in the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

near

Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur Santa Rosalía is a city and municipal seat of Mulegé Municipality, in Baja California Sur, situated along the Gulf of California. Located on the east coast of the Baja Peninsula, the town had a population of 14,160 inhabitants in 2015. The ci ...

and off

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

employs a variety of tagging methodologies in order to track short-term

diel vertical migration Diel vertical migration (DVM), also known as diurnal vertical migration, is a pattern of movement used by some organisms, such as copepods, living in the ocean and in lakes. The word ''diel'' comes from the Latin ''dies'' day, and means a 24-h ...

s as well as long-distance migrations.

Recognition

Gilly was nominated by

to be one of the

USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the ...

's Nifty Fifty Speakers who spoke about his work and career to middle and high school students in October 2010. He is also an adviser to the Microbes Mind Forum.

Personal life

Gilly is an avid fan of

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

Ed Ricketts Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts (May 14, 1897 – May 11, 1948) was an American marine biologist, ecologist, and philosopher. He is best known for ''Between Pacific Tides'' (1939), a pioneering study of intertidal ecology. He is also known as a men ...

Robinson Jeffers John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887 – January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Much of Jeffers's poetry was written in narrative and epic form. However, he is also known for his short ...

and other notable characters in the Monterey peninsula.

References

External links

*
Selected Publications (2003-present)
at Gilly Lab
William Gilly
at

Gilly Lab
at Stanford University (2022-09-21)
Gilly Lab
at Stanford University (2016-05-28)
Profile
at ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilly, William 21st-century American biologists Living people Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Washington University in St. Louis alumni Teuthologists Stanford University faculty Yale University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni