Carter Gilbert (Fig. 1) comes from a family steeped in natural science. His father was a botanist, his mother studied biology, one of his two younger brothers became an MD, and the other received a Ph.D. in entomology. Whether through his genes or through his surroundings, Carter found himself drawn into a scientific career as well.
Carter Rowell Gilbert was born on 23 May 1930 in Huntington, West Virginia, where his Harvard-educated father, Frank A. Gilbert (1900–1989), taught botany at Marshall College. Carter's interest in natural history was stimulated at an early age by his hikes and walks in the country with his father, an accomplished naturalist with an extensive knowledge of birds as well as plants. His mother, Eleanor Marshall Gilbert (1900–1987) studied biology at the University of Delaware. She spent one summer at Woods Hole, MA, where she met David Starr Jordan. Carter still has an...