Jeff and Walt Celebration
NOVEMBER 1ST 5:00PM, 2025
Bauman Center on Stony Brook University Campus
On November 1, the department gathered at the Bauman Center to honor two pillars of our community, Walter “Walt” Eanes and Jeffrey Levinton.
About sixty guests filled the room, including alumni, faculty, staff, students, friends, and family. Guests traveled from Arizona, California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Georgia, and Ontario.
Tributes were offered from alumni and colleagues including Brian Verrelli (Virginia Commonwealth U.), Peter Petraitis (U. of Pennsylvania), Marty Kreitman (U. of Chicago), J. Matt Hoch (Nova Southeastern U.), and Abigail Cahill (Albion C.). Donna DiGiovanni presented gifts on behalf of the department.
During the toasts, Brian Verrelli recalled his first meeting with Walt Eanes, when Walt sketched a metabolic pathway on the back of a reprint. That 'napkin sketch' reveals how Walt's work fits together: comparative gene sequences across glycolytic pathways, latitudinal clines from Florida to Vermont, and functional tests that used P‑element insertional mutagenesis to quantify metabolic flux. Marty Kreitman likened one elegant Eanes experiment to a Meselson–Stahl‑level demonstration of inference. Together, the tributes captured how Walt advanced the use of Drosophila melanogaster to link population genetics, pathway biochemistry, and life‑history variation, connecting molecular differences to organismal performance and local adaptation.
For Jeff Levinton, Peter Petraitis walked the room through decades of marine ecology that tied the feeding biology of benthic organisms to population and community dynamics, highlighted climate‑relevant thermal and hydric stress in fiddler crabs across broad latitudinal gradients, and brought flow cytometry and video endoscopy to classic questions of bivalve feeding selectivity. J. Matthew Hoch described how Jeff’s “say yes to opportunity” ethos (right down to responding to a stranded whale on the beach) still shapes how he mentors his own students. Petraitis also nodded to Jeff’s range beyond ecology into macroevolution, his widely used Marine Biology textbook and Hudson River Estuary volume, and years of editorial service.
Heartfelt thanks to the organizing team, especially Melissa and Tammy, for crafting an evening that felt exactly like E&E at its best.
| Jeff Levinton | Walter Eanes |
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Photos from the Event
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