Alan E. Leviton

An interest in the history of science led me and my historian of science colleague to begin compiling a history of the Academy's early years. The basis for the history was a manuscript by historian Theodore Hittell that had been compiled from the Academy’s minute books of meetings and that survived the 1906 fire and earthquake. We have also published biographical sketches on several nineteenth-century naturalist-scientists, some of whom were intimately associated with the early years of the Academy.

Michele L. Aldrich, Hatfield, MA [ret.]

Steven C. Anderson, University of the Pacific

Rafe Brown, University of Kansas

Maren Gaulke, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Arvin Diesmos, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila

Claudia Corti, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

George R. Zug, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

 

Education

A.B., M.A., Ph.D., Biological Sciences, Stanford University (1949, 1953, 1960).

Counselor to the Executive Committee, Chair, Section on Information and Computer Sciences, Member of the Council, and Editor & Chair, Committee on Scientific Publications, Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2002--) http://www.aaas.org/

Research Associate, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution  http://www.mnh.si.edu/

Research Professor of Biology, San Francisco State University

http://biology.sfsu.edu/

Past President, Herpetologists' League

http://www.herpetologistsleague.org/en/index.php

Past Chair, Geological Society of America's History of Geology Division  http://gsahist.org/

Past Secretary-Treasurer, Forum for Historians of Science in America http://academic.udayton.edu/AmSciForum/

Past Executive Director, Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Past President, Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science http://www.sou.edu/AAASPD/

 

Fellow

California Academy of Sciences http://www.calacademy.org/science/heroes/fellows.php

AAAS

http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/fellows/

Geological Society of America

http://rock.geosociety.org/membership/fellows.asp

 

Member

American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

http://www.asih.org/

Sigma Xi

http://www.sigmaxi.org/

History of Science Society

http://www.hssonline.org/

History of Earth Sciences Society

http://www.historyearthscience.org/

Biological Society of Washington 

http://www.biolsocwash.org/

Swan, L.W. and A.E. Leviton. 1963. The herpetology of Nepal: a history, checklist, and zoogeographical analysis of the herpetofauna. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, 32(6):103-147

Leviton, A.E. 1963. Remarks on the zoogeography of Philippine terrestrial snakes. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, 31(15):369-416.

Leviton, A.E. 1971. Reptiles and amphibians of North America. Doubleday, New York. 251 pp.

Leviton, A.E. 1982. John Boardman Trask: California's Physician- Geologist, 1849-1879. Pages 37-69 in A.E. Leviton, P. Rodda, E. Yochelson, and M.L. Aldrich, eds., Frontiers of Geological Exploration in Eastern North America. Pacific Division, AAAS, San Francisco.

Leviton, A.E., R. H. Gibbs, Jr., R. K. Johnson, and R. McDiarmid. 1982. Computer applications to collection management in herpetology and ichthyology. Washington, D.C. 109 pp.

Leviton, A.E. and M.L. Aldrich. 1984. John Anderson (1833-1900): A zoologist in the Victorian Period, including a checklist and bibliography to the amphibians and reptiles of the Arabian Peninsula. Pages v-xxxv in (reprint of) John Anderson, A Contribution to the Herpetology of Arabia. Society for the Study of Amphibians & Reptiles, Athens, Ohio.

Aldrich, M.L., B.A. Bolt, A.E. Leviton, and P.U. Rodda. 1986. The "Report" of the 1868 Haywards earthquake. Bull. Seismological Soc. Amer., 76(1):71-76.

Leviton, A.E. 1987. Description of a new species of Coluber (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae) from the Southern Tihama of Saudi Arabia, with comments on the biogeography of Southwestern Arabia. Fauna of Saudi Arabia, 8:436-446.

Leviton, A.E., S.C. Anderson, S.Minton, Jr., and K. Adler. 1992 Herpetology of the Middle East: Including Iraq, Kuwait, southwestern Iran and Northeastern Saudi Arabia. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Oxford, OH. 275 pp., 33 col. Pls.

Leviton, A.E. and M.L. Aldrich. 1997. Theodore Henry Hittell’s California Academy of Sciences, 1853-1906. California Academy of Sciences Memoir 22. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, 623 + [1] pp.

Leviton, A.E. and M.L. Aldrich. 2000. India: A 19th Century Mecca for Natural History. Pages 51-80 and figs. 1-25 in M.T. Ghiselin and A.E. Leviton, eds., Cultures and Institutions of Natural History. California Academy of Sciences Memoir 25. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California.

Leviton, A.E. and M.L. Aldrich. 2004. The impact of travels on scientific knowledge: William Thomas Blanford, Henry Francis Blanford, and the Geological Survey of India, 1851-1889. Pages 117-137 in M.T. Ghiselin and A.E. Leviton, eds., Impact of Travels on Scientific Knowledge. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco and Museo di Storia Naturale Faraggiana Ferrandi, Novara, Italy. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, 55(Suppl. II).

Bruschi, S., C. Corti, M.A. Carretero, D.J. Harris, B. Lanza, and A.E. Leviton. 2006 Comments on the status of the Sardinian-Corsican lacertid lizard Podarcis tiliguerta. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, 57(6):225-245. 

Leviton, A.E., G.R. Zug., J.V. Vindum, and G.O.U. Wogan. 2008, Handbook to the Dangerously Venomous Snakes of Myanmar. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, the Nature & Wildlife Conservation Division, Forest Department, Myanmar, and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. 122 pp.

Aldrich, M.L., A.E. Leviton, and L.L. Sears. 2009. Georgius Agricola, De Animantibus Subterraneis, 1549 and 1556: A translation of a Renaissance Essay in Zoology and Natural History. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, ser. 4, 60(9):89-174, 5 figs., 1 table.

 

Contact

  • Alan E. Leviton
  • Curator Emeritus
  • California Academy of Sciences
  • 55 Music Concourse Drive
  • San Francisco, CA 94118