Jeff began his ichthyological career in Mexico’s Gulf of California while a zoology undergraduate at the University of Arizona, and developed an interest in fish systematics as a curatorial assistant at the university fish collection. During postgraduate studies in biological oceanography at the University of Hawaii, Jeff became fascinated with the morphological development of larvae of coral-reef fishes, and their ecology during their pelagic sojourn away from coral reefs. His PhD studies on the ecology of ichthyoplankton off the island of Oahu laid the groundwork for much future work on fish ontogeny, relationships and the dispersal of fish larvae. After working in California on the impact of a nuclear power plant, Jeff came to Australia as Queen’s Fellow in Marine Science in 1979, and worked at the Australian Museum, in Sydney, until retirement in 2014 as Senior Principal Research Scientist. Most of Jeff’s research on fish larvae has been in the tropical Pacific (the Great Barrier Reef and Polynesia). Early work was done from a ship’s deck with towed plankton nets, but a mid-career change in emphasis to study of behaviour of larvae and its implications for dispersal and population connectivity led to laboratory and in situ approaches. Jeff had adjunct appointments at the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and University of Technology Sydney while in Sydney. He became associated with the University of Tasmania in Hobart in 2008.