BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



Thomas J. Whitmore was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on July 

 27, 1955. Tom graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1977 

 with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Biology Department. His 

 studies emphasized geology and paleontology, and included a 12- 

 credit independent study on the paleoecology of the Miocene and 

 Pliocene sediments of the South Carolina coastal plain. Tom 

 completed a graduate course in micropaleontology at Western 

 Connecticut State College and entered the University of Florida for 

 graduate work in 1979. 



Though intending research in invertebrate paleontology, Tom 

 met Edward S. Deevey, Jr. and began studies with Ed on the 

 paleolimnology of Florida lakes. Tom studied the "Ecology and 

 Systematics of Diatoms" with Charles Reimer at Iowa Lakeside 

 Laboratory in the summer of 1981, and submitted his master's thesis 

 entitled "Diatom Transfer Functions for Assessing the Cultural 

 Eutrophication of Florida Lakes" in 1985. 



Tom continued graduate work in Ed Deevey's laboratory at the 

 Florida Museum of Natural History until Ed's death in 1988. In 1990, 

 Ed's lab relocated to join Claire Schelske in the Department of 

 Fisheries and Aquaculture at the University of Florida. Tom 

 continued graduate studies under the guidance of Frank Nordlie, 

 Chairman of the Department of Zoology. He also participated in field 



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