Gary Allan Polis (1946 – March 27, 2000) was an arachnologist and the world's leading expert on scorpions.
Education and career.
Polis was born in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Loyola University in 1969. Polis received an M.A. in 1975 and a Ph.D. in biology in 1977 from the University of California, Riverside.
While at UC Riverside, Polis studied under Dr. Roger Farley. He conducted a variety of experiments and did studies of Vaejovidae. He went on to teach at Vanderbilt University from 1979 to 1992 and wrote several books; his "Biology of Scorpions" has been referred to as the "scorpion Bible." Polis was the subject of the book Scorpion Man by Laurence Pringle.
Polis was noted as a desert ecologist and advised the government on desert scorpions during the Gulf War.
In 1998, Polis became Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis, a post he held until his death in 2000.
Death.
Polis died in a seastorm in the Sea of Cortez during an ecological expedition. He was cited by a survivor as attempting to help others reach safety as a priority before his own. On the expedition in the Sea Of Cortez were colleagues from Japan, one of whom also died in the accident.