Needham, Paul R. (Paul Robert), 1902-1964

Curator.

Paul Robert Needham was a professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley from 1949 to 1963. The focus of his research and teaching was ichthyology and fisheries management. During the 1930s and 1940s, Needham worked in fisheries management for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Oregon State Game Commission.

Biographical Information

Paul Robert Needham was born in Illinois in 1902. His father, James G. Needham, was a respected biologist and expert on the insects of streams at Cornell University. Paul Robert Needham received his B.S. in Entymology in 1924 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Limnology in 1926 and 1928 from Cornell. After four years teaching at Cornell and the University of Rochester, Needham took a position with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as an aquatic biologist. He was stationed at Stanford University from 1931 to 1940. Needham then took a position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, stationed at Convict Creek Field Station in Owens Valley, from 1940 to 1944. In 1944, Needham became the Director of Fisheries for the Oregon State Game Commission, a position he remained in until he accepted a faculty position in the Zoology Department at the University of California, Berkeley in 1949.

The focus of his research and teaching was ichthyology and fisheries management. He had a special interest in the salmonid fishes, particularly trout. Many of Needham’s 101 publications deal with trout ecology, behavior, and conservation. In addition to teaching and research on campus, Needham played a central role in establishing the Sagehen Creek Field Station, a university facility near Truckee, in 1951. This station served as a base for the study of trout populations in the Sierras. The station eventually had nine buildings, research laboratories, teaching and study collections, an underwater tank for observing fish, and a hatchery. The station continues to operate as a University of California, Berkeley teaching and research facility today. Needham also traveled widely throughout Europe and North America studying trout in various habitats.