The son of a fisherman and an art teacher, he grew up along the coast of historic Salem, Massachusetts. As an ichthyologist, Dr. Sidlauskas works to help reveal and protect the world’s tremendous biodiversity of fishes. He teaches courses dealing with ichthyology, systematics, biodiversity and conservation biology, and his research seeks to understand the evolution, ecology and diversity of freshwater fishes on scales ranging from local to global. He achieved a measure of internet fame for his use of Facebook to community source fish identifications from photographs. Dr. Sidlauskas has involved nearly two dozen undergraduates in the research and management of the quarter-million preserved fishes in the Oregon State Ichthyology Collection, which he curates. In 2014 he was named OSU’s Undergraduate Mentor of the Year.