Abstract
This is a tribute to my mentor, colleague, and friend, Dr. David L. G. Noakes (1942–2020). David Noakes exhibited many attributes that made him successful in working with diverse people in various capacities. I focus on five interrelated attributes that have inspired me: his keen intellect, broad knowledge base (i.e., he was a polymath), voracious reading habits, skills as an educator and mentor, and connector and facilitator of scientific communities. David Noakes shared his knowledge from deep and wide reading by example, mentorship, and encouragement. David was influential in his calls for more rigor, scholarship, and research. Evidence suggests that reading yields many personal and professional benefits. Reading will increasingly become more important to individuals seeking knowledge in the twenty-first century. Aspiring intellectuals and scientists would be wise to follow David Noakes’ example in reading and scholarship.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Judy Li, Margaret Docker, and Michelle Scanlan for providing thoughts and reviews of an early version of this article. Thank you, Stan Gregory, for providing David’s syllabus from his Fish Ecology class at Oregon State University, and Carl Schreck and Rachel Crowhurst for your input. Tom Stahl also provided an early review. This paper benefitted from the constructive reviews of the Editors and two anonymous reviewers.
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Clemens, B.J. David L. G. Noakes as polymath and educator. Environ Biol Fish 106, 759–768 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01322-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01322-9