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Remembering Henry Reiswig - the sponge specialist

Published: 7 July 2020

Henry Reiswig, the former Biology professor and curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Redpath Museum, died on July 4, 2020. You can read his obituary here:

His daughter Amy says: "He died in his lab in the garage, with microscope slides on the warmer, doing what he loved: science." 

Henry worked at the Redpath Museum from 1972 until his official retirement in 2001. He then moved to Victoria, BC, where he continued his "retirement" at the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) and as an Adjunct Professor with University of Victoria. In 2015 his SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) photos were featured in a special exhibit at the RBCM. 

PHOTO: Right, a carnivorous sponge of the genus Chondrocladia that was found by Henry at 2,500 meters depth in the Gulf of California. Left, Henry Reiswig in a familiar position looking at a sponge. From Monteray Bay Research Institute (2013).

Land Acknowledgement

McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.

The Redpath Museum's director EDI statement.

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