Eakin, Richard M.

Eakin, Richard M. (Marshall) (1910–  ) zoologist; born in Florence, Colo. After doing postgraduate research in Europe (1935–36), he spent his career at the University of California: Berkeley (1936–77). He made major contributions to studies of the electron microscopy of photoreceptors in vertebrates and invertebrates, and was editor of several professional journals. To convey his enthusiasm for science to his students, he would appear in the classroom costumed as famous biologists, and lecture in the appropriate character and manner on relevant topics. These popular impersonations led to producing and starring in his own educational films about the life and work of renowned scientists such as Darwin, Pasteur, and Mendel.