Robert P. Higgins

Q: When did Robert P. Higgins die?

Robert P. Higgins died on December 18, 2022.

Q: How old was Robert P. Higgins when they died?

Robert P. Higgins was 90 years old at the time of death.

Robert Price Higgins (October 8, 1932 – December 18, 2022) was an American systematic invertebrate zoologist and ecologist, who specialized in the unusual taxa of kinorhynchs and tardigrades.

Early life and education

Robert P. Higgins was born on October 8, 1932, in Denver, Colorado, to Jay Higgins and Amy E (Gates) Higgins, and he attended South High School in Denver, graduating in 1950. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder where he earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees studying in the laboratory of invertebrate zoologist Robert William Pennak, and on the advice of Pennak, he attended Duke University, as a James W. Duke Fellow, earning his Ph.D. in 1961.

Career

In 1961, Higgins started his career in academia as a faculty member in the Biology Department at Wake Forest University, and in 1968 he had a one-year post-doctoral research position at the Marine Biological Laboratory in the Systematics-Ecology program. In 1969, he joined the Smithsonian Institution in the as a biological oceanographer. Higgins served as Director of the Centre for Mediterranean Marine Classification 1969–1971, Program Director of Limnology and Oceanography, 1971–1974, acting director, International Programme on Environmental Sciences in 1974, Zoologist Superior from 1974 to 1978, and Curator, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History in 1978. Higgins retired from the Smithsonian Institution in 1996.

Death

Higgins died in Asheville, North Carolina on December 18, 2022, at the age of 90.

Selected publications

1959: Life history of Macrobiotus islandicus Richters with notes on other tardigrades from Colorado. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 78(2): pages 137–154. https://doi.org/10.2307/3224022
1967: The revival of Macrobiotus areolatus Murray (Tardigrada) from the Cryptobiotic State. Crowe, J.H., & Higgins, R.P. 1967. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 86(3): pages 286–294.
1975: Occurrence of the genus Tanarctus Renaud-Debyser, 1959 in Northeastern Atlantic waters with a description of T. ramazzotti n. sp. (Arthrotardigrada).
1983: The Atlantic barrier reef ecosystem at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, II: Kinorhyncha.
1984: A New Family of Arthrotardigrada (Tardigrada: Heterotardigrada) from the Atlantic Coast of Florida, United States
1986: New Loricifera from southeastern United States coastal Waters.
1988: Introduction to the Study of Meiofauna.