Ichthyologist Eugenie Clark began her studies on the behaviour and reproductive isolating mechanisms of fresh-water aquarium fishes. She later combined her love for diving with the study of marine fishes – first by hard-hat diving and snorkelling, and then using scuba and submersibles. She has studied shark behaviour in the deep sea from submersibles at depths up to 12,000 feet.  

Dr. Clark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College, New York, and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University. She is one of the world’s authorities on sharks, and author of more than 170 scientific articles and popular books on sharks and other fishes. She was a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the Department of Biology for 32 years, and is now a Professor Emerita. She currently is a senior research scientist at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., – the lab she started in 1955. 

Dr. Clark is perhaps best known as “The Shark Lady” – after the title of her 1969 bestselling book The Lady and the Sharks about her work as a scientist and laboratory director.