{{about||the English cleric and author|William Stephen Gilly}} '''William Frank Gilly''' is an American biologist specializing in the study of cephalopods. He works at ''Gilly Lab'', Hopkins Marine Station, in Monterey County, as a professor of biology, at Stanford University<ref>{{cite web|url=https://profiles.stanford.edu/william-gilly|title=William Gilly|work=Faculty profiles|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=2019-10-31}}</ref> and was involved with the television special ''The Future is Wild''.
==Early life== Gilly received a BSE (Electrical Engineering, 1972) from Princeton University and a Ph.D. (Physiology and Biophysics, 1978) from Washington University in St. Louis. He had additional training at Yale University, University of Pennsylvania and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.
==Career== From the late 1970s to the 2010s, he contributed to the basic understanding of electrical excitability in nerve and muscle cells in a wide range of organisms ranging from brittle-stars to mammals. Much of this work employed the giant axon system of the squid as an experimental model system for molecular and biophysical approaches. Additional physiological studies made in the living squid revealed unexpected complexities in how the giant axon system controls escape responses, and how mechanisms governing that control are subject to modification by environmental factors like temperature and during normal development.
===Humboldt squid=== Gilly's current research program on squid concentrates on the behavior and physiology of ''Dosidicus gigas'', the jumbo or Humboldt squid. Fieldwork in the Gulf of California<ref name="icesjms/fsz133">{{cite journal |last1=Frawley |first1=Timothy H |last2=Briscoe |first2=Dana K |last3=Daniel |first3=Patrick C |last4=Britten |first4=Gregory L |last5=Crowder |first5=Larry B |last6=Robinson |first6=Carlos J |last7=Gilly |first7=William F |author7-link=William Gilly |title=Impacts of a shift to a warm-water regime in the Gulf of California on jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) |journal=ICES Journal of Marine Science |date=18 July 2019 |article-number=fsz133 |doi=10.1093/icesjms/fsz133|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Jumbo squid mystery solved |url=https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/548057 |access-date=21 September 2022 |work=EurekAlert! |date=July 18, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> near Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur<ref name="metrosiliconvalley/squid">{{cite news |last1=Bland |first1=Alastair |title=Giant Squid: Here There Be Monsters |url=https://www.metrosiliconvalley.com/papers/metro/03.29.06/squid-0613.html |access-date=21 September 2022 |work=Metro Silicon Valley}}</ref> and off Monterey Bay employs a variety of tagging methodologies in order to track short-term diel vertical migrations as well as long-distance migrations.
==Recognition== Gilly was nominated by Stanford University to be one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Nifty Fifty Speakers who spoke about his work and career to middle and high school students in October 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://usasciencefestival.org/|title=USA Science & Engineering Festival|website=USASEF|language=en|access-date=2010-03-26}}</ref> He is also an adviser to the Microbes Mind Forum.
==Personal life== Gilly is a fan of John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, Robinson Jeffers and other notable characters in the Monterey peninsula.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://purl.stanford.edu/hv867nh0500|title=Gilly, William F.|last=Gilly|first=William F.|date=February 22, 2016|website=purl.stanford.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *{{Google Scholar id|WxY_JCoAAAAJ}} * [https://gillylab.stanford.edu/publications Selected Publications (2003-present)] at Gilly Lab * [https://hopkinsmarinestation.stanford.edu/people/william-gilly William Gilly] at Hopkins Marine Station * [https://gillylab.stanford.edu/ Gilly Lab] at Stanford University (2022-09-21) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160528212329/https://gillylab.stanford.edu/ Gilly Lab] at Stanford University (2016-05-28) * [https://www.nationalgeographic.org/news/real-world-geography-dr-william-gilly/ Profile] at ''National Geographic'' {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilly, William}} Category:21st-century American biologists Category:Living people Category:Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni Category:Teuthologists Category:Stanford University faculty Category:Yale University alumni Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni