Edwin Rhodes
Voices from the Science Centers
Voices from the Science Centers is an oral history initiative dedicated to documenting the institutional knowledge of fisheries scientists and administrators in the labs of NOAA’s Fisheries Science Centers.
Edwin Rhodes was born in Milford, Connecticut on March 4, 1943. During high school, he visited the Milford Lab to ask about a science project. He met Victor Loosanoff, the Lab Director, who became a mentor. Ed began working at the lab in 1959 as a high school junior and continued to work there until about 1970. After a brief break, he returned to the lab from 1971 to 1989. He rejoined NOAA as the Aquaculture Coordinator from 1997 to 2001. He has spent his entire career, both in the public and private sectors, working on aquaculture and shellfish.
Interview contains discussions of: laboratory work on oysters, shellfish aquaculture, global warming, collaboration with other scientists, changes in technology and advances in the lab components, physiology, DNA.
Ed Rhodes provides a rich overview of the history of the Milford Lab from 1959 when it was part of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries to its' transition under NOAA Fisheries and the National Marine Fisheries Service. He gives a description of his work in the lab as well as in the field. He discusses the aquaculture industry and how the Milford lab has supported the industry throughout the year. In addition, he describes his work in the private sector in Chile and with other organizations.
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