Ken Norris’ Legacy
Ken Norris
UCSC’s strong tradition of natural history education and research is due in no small part to Professor Kenneth S. Norris (1924-1998). Through his ground-breaking research, inspired teaching and mentorship, and charismatic leadership, Norris left a huge legacy that continues to benefit thousands of students and researchers worldwide. The Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History will continue to support many of Professor’s Norris’ endeavors as well as take his vision for natural history education and research to a broader community and state-wide level.
Browse our website to learn more about Ken, or read a biography about him by UCSC undergraduate Christopher Santomero in 2015.
Throughout his career, he wrote many books exploring his research and path towards discovery:
- The Porpoise Watcher (1974)
- Dolphin Days: The Life and Times of the Spinner Dolphin (1991)
- The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin (1994)
- Mountain Time (2010)
A Career That Left Its Mark
In areas as diverse as desert ecology and marine biology, Professor Norris made significant scientific contributions throughout his long research career. As a researcher at UCLA and UCSC, Norris mainly studied cetaceans (whales and dolphins). His ground-breaking discovery of echolocation in Spinner Dolphins revolutionized our understanding of the social dynamics of these remarkable animals.
The author of several books, Norris is often credited for helping create the entire field of cetacean research. The basis of what we know today about whales and dolphins, their social patterns and echolocation especially, are a direct result of investigations performed by Norris and his various research teams over the years.
Professor Norris completed his doctoral research in La Jolla on the Opaleye Perch (an intertidal fish) and the effects of water temperature on their ontogeny. In recognition of his work, he was given the the Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America in 1963 for the best paper published by a young scientist. Before this as a masters student at UCLA, Norris studied the evolution of the Fringe-toed lizard (in the genus Uma).
As a trusted scientific figure, Norris served as an advisor to the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. In this role, Norris helped write the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and spearheaded a national campaign to reduce the amount of dolphins killed by bycatch due to tuna fishing. Because of his tireless work on conservation issues, he was named “Man of the Year” by the American Cetacean Society in 1976 and awarded the California Academy of Sciences’ Fellows Medal the following year in 1977.
In his own words, “We must now make the rivers run clear again. We must find a new equilibrium on Earth, tend its land and seas with heartfelt tenderness and not take what we cannot soon return. We must make space for those creatures who ride along with us. We are just one passenger. We cannot take it all and forget them. We must find our place in this new equilibrium of life. We must come to understand, in our very bones, that we are children living by the commands of a finite Earth.”
Places for Teaching, Research and Conservation
Professor Norris was a man of big ideas and one of his biggest was the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS). As a graduate student at UCLA, Norris was surprised to find that field study sites, many of which he frequented, were rapidly disappearing due to increasing development. The beauty and ecological integrity of many open remote areas were being rapidly transformed into motels and parking lots.
Norris felt a responsibility toward preserving these undisturbed natural lands for research, teaching, and habitat conservation. In 1963 Norris proposed a UC-wide plan to acquire land to represent the broad range of California’s habitats and to make them accessible for the benefit of all UC campuses. Once approved, Norris took time off from teaching to travel throughout California to interview other field researchers and survey numerous potential reserve locations. Norris analyzed 81 original sites, 13 of which were initially drawn into the NRS.
Today, the UC Natural Reserve System has grown significantly and now encompasses over 756,000 acres of protected land with a total of 39 reserves, making it the largest system of natural reserves in the world. Each year, thousands of researchers and students from universities and schools around the world utilize the UC NRS system.
