Grinnell Pathway

You are currently on the Grinnell Pathway. Like a number of things on campus, this strip of land is named after the late Joesph Grinnell. Grinnell was a professor at UC Berkeley and the school’s first director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ). Grinnell was influential in his field, and many of his ideas and practices are still integral to the field of zoology today. Notably, he developed the concept of the ecological niche, created an in-depth observational note-taking technique that is still used, and spearheaded a survey of large swaths of California wildlife that was replicated in 2008 with the Grinnell resurvey project, partially in celebration of the centennial of the MVZ. Grinnell’s other recent notable namesake was that of one of the well-loved Cal falcons, whose dramatic story you can learn more about here.