David W. Greenfield


David Wayne Greenfield is an American ichthyologist, marine biologist, ecologist, zoogeographer, and university professor.

Biography

Greenfield earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962 from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. In 1966, he received his Ph.D. in fisheries science from the University of Washington in Seattle with the dissertation Systematics and zoogeography of Myripristis Cuvier .
From 1966 to 1970 he was a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and an assistant professor at California State University, Fullerton. In 1971 he married Teresa Arámbula Greenfield, who later became professor of women’s studies and education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa ; the couple has one child.
From 1970 to 1977 he was associate professor, and from 1977 to 1984 full professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. From 1984 to 1987 he was professor of biology at the University of Colorado Denver, and from 1987 to 2003 professor of zoology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Beginning in 1995 he also served as dean of the graduate division at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He retired as professor emeritus in 2003 but continues as a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences.
Greenfield’s research focuses on the systematics of coral reef fishes, the zoogeography of marine and freshwater fishes, and the systematics of fishes of Belize and Fiji. Between 1972 and 1981 he conducted coral reef biology studies at the Tropical Studies Center in Belize.
He has published over 150 scientific papers and described 137 fish species, including Poecilia teresae and Eviota teresae, both dedicated to his wife. His book Fishes of the continental waters of Belize was published in 1997.

Eponymy

Several fish species have been named in his honor, including:
Additionally, Sanopus greenfieldorum was named after both him and his wife.

Species described by David W. Greenfield

Greenfield is the author or co-author of the scientific descriptions of numerous fish taxa, including more than 100 species across several families such as Holocentridae, Gobiidae, Apogonidae, and others.

Selected works