Jane Lubchenco to Head NOAA?

According to the Washington Post, the new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be Oregon State University Distinguished Professor of Zoology Jane Lubchenco.

Lubchenco is a marine biologist who specializes in the study marine ecosystems and how humans affect them. She has been actively involved in environmental policy issues, and has testified both at the state level and before congress about the creation of marine sanctuaries and climate change. She is also one of the founders and principals of COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea), which works to solve marine environmental problems by communicating scientific knowledge to policymakers, the public and the media. For those efforts she received the AAAS Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award.

Also of interest is a 1993 article she wrote about being one half of two-scientist couple for BioScience. The solution that she and her husband came to was to split a position: each of them held a half-time, tenure-track faculty position, which allowed both of them to teach, do research, and spend time with their young children. In the article she argued for creating more such positions to increase the number of women who pursue science careers:

The most difficult time in a faculty member's life is usually the time during which one is an assistant professor, struggling to teach courses that come up ton one's ideals, to challenge and educate students, to establish one's own research program, to obtain funding, to publish, and generally to prove oneself. If this period coincides with having young children (which for biological reasons is often the case for women), the time can be even more difficult. Even if highly ambitious, driven women and men mange ot juggle all of these demands, the messages they send to graduate students and undergraduates appear to frighten away many outstanding potential scientists. Moreover, if individuals wish to spend more time with their children than full-time positions allow, academia offers virgually no viable options.

She does acknowledge that not everyone would be interested in such a position, but that many women (and men) would, and that it should be made an option. Obviously it worked for her. She talks more about the difficulty she and her husband had in balancing their academic careers in a 2004 interview at the National Academy of Sciences.

I think it's exciting that the new head of the NOAA is a working scientist, a strong advocate for the environment, and someone who has been heavily involved in public policy issues, which I assume means she understands how the system "works". Definitely good news!

Related information:

• Jane Lubchenco "Advocates for Science: The Role of Academic Environmental Scientists" (video)
  
• Jane Lubchenco on Science Debate 2008 (vide0
• Jane Lubchenco: "Climate Change and its Implications for Oregon" (video)
• Mother Jones Radio: Jane Lubchenco
• National Academy of Science: InterViews
• AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science & Technology
• Scripps Nierenberg Prize for promotion of science in the public interest
  

Tags: Jane Lubchenco, NOAA

Women's Work: Scientific Illustration

The Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology has a fantastic online exhibit on Women's Work: Portraits of 12 Scientific Illustrators from the 17th to the 21st Century.

There are a number of pre-20th century women made important contributions to science with their illustrations of the natural world. Their work was often undervalued, at least compared to "real" science. Take, for example, the comments of John Lindley, who was the first Professor of Botany at the University of London and Assistant Secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society:

Because of his passion for his subject and his tremendous influence, he can be credited with shaping the science of botany, but he also took the lead in a movement to divide botanical studies into gender specific categories, identifying certain practices as those acceptable for women such as collecting, painting, and tutoring of children, and reserving true research as masculine science. On April 30, 1829, in his inaugural speech as Professor of Botany, he stated “It has been very much the fashion of late years, in this country, to undervalue the importance of this science, and to consider it an amusement for ladies rather than an occupation for the serious thoughts of men,” establishing a divisive agenda that was felt long afterwards.

It's little wonder that women's contributions to science have been so often forgotten. Exhibits like this help correct that. Here are some of the women that are profiled (be sure to click the links to see the illustrations):

Sarah Drake (1803-1857), who trained as a botanical illustrator under the above-mentioned John Lindley.

Drake was extremely prolific, creating well over 1000 illustrations for the Botanical Register alone. Her career ended when the Botanical Register ceased publication in 1847.

Anna Lister (1671-?), who, along with her sister Susanna, illustrated the publications of her father, Dr. Martin Lister.

As the sisters grew, they would have had the benefit of observing the talented William Lodge engraving their father’s early publications. Some illustrations that he had completed for previous Lister publications were used again in Historiae Conchyliorum and it is likely that he engraved some of the plates from the Listers’ drawings, but after Lodge’s death in 1689, the pair replaced him as their father’s illustrators and engravers for his grand work, as well as for the articles he and others published in the Philosophical Transactions.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

Merian came from the tradition of flower painting, but she was foremost a scientist: she was one of the first to study metamorphosis and one of the first to publish images of tropical plants, the first to understand and describe the relationships between animals along with their host plants. The work produced from her Surinam voyage was remarkably influential.

Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841), who worked with her husband, John Gould, on illustrating the fauna from around the world.

Elizabeth’s greatest adventure began on May 16, 1838. Leaving all but her oldest child with her mother, she and John set sail for Australia. Over the next two years, Elizabeth made hundreds of drawings from specimens for the publications Birds of Australia and A Monograph of the Macropodidæ, or Family of Kangaroos, as well as fifty illustrations for the Ornithology volume of Charles Darwin’s Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle. She also accompanied John into the Australian bush, giving her a thrilling, first-hand glimpse of her subjects.

Anna Maria Hussey (1805-?) was the illustrator and author of Illustrations of British Mycology.

Hussey was a strong willed woman who approached her personal researches with an enthusiasm that she did not quite feel for her role as a clergyman’s wife. She resisted when she was called upon by “every old woman in the parish” and she chafed at her husband’s reminders of her duties. She was a prolific writer, the author of published fiction, as well as the extensive text that accompanied the plates in Illustrations of British Mycology. During her most creative period, she maintained an active and candid correspondence with her mycological mentor, Reverend M. J. Berkley, which provides many details of her daily life and work.

Sarah "Sadie" Price (1849-1903) began as a watercolor teacher, who ended up collecting plants and studying the sciences.

She wrote papers and gave lectures on plants, birds, insects, fishes, shells, clouds and astronomy. Between 1893 and 1907, she penned over forty scientific papers which were published in a variety of popular and scientific journals. She organized and taught classes out of her home. Her nature studies classes were so popular that that they persisted for nearly thirty years after her death.

The exhibit also profiles contemporary scientific illustrators Sally Bensusen, Megan Bluhm, Marlene Hill Donnelly, Bee Gunn, Jessa Huebing-Reitinger, and Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey.

For more botanical illustrations by women, see the web site for the Getty Center exhibit "Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science"

(via BibliOdyssey)

Image: Illustration by Maria Sibylla Merian of Surinam peppers. "She was fascinated by the interaction of plants and people, taking an approach that today would be called ethnobotany"

Tags: women in science, botany, illustration, Maria Sibylla Merian, Sarah Drake, Anna Lister, Anna Maria Hussey, Sadie Price

Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse: Wildlife Zoologist

Today's post is about a woman scientist doing some cool research.

Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London, studies resistance to disease in wildlife, including wild boars and sea lions. However, some of her research subjects are much larger: the blue whales, gray whales, and sperm whales that migrate along the Gulf of California. She's trying to understand what diseases wild populations of these whales carry, but taking blood samples - the usual method of analysis - is impossible. Instead she and her research team have devised a novel method of sample collection (picture):

Her new technique involves using a 3.5-foot (about a meter) remote-controlled helicopter with Petri dishes attached to the craft's bottom. When the equipment is ready, Acevedo-Whitehouse and her colleagues work aboard a small boat, scanning the ocean for the whales' blows, which appear as a sprinkler mist shooting from the ocean surface. The mist contains the whale's exhalation of air, water vapor and sometimes mucus. Once the whale is spotted, an operator directs the helicopter directly above and through the mist, which sprays up onto the Petri dishes.

Any microorganisms collected on the Petri dishes are identified by DNA sequence analysis.

I wonder if the members of her research team squabble over who gets to run the mucus-collecting helicopter, which sounds like a lot of fun.

Acevedo-Whitehouse, who is originally from Mexico, chose to pursue her PhD in Europe because there were better opportunities ther for both her and her husband, who is also a scientist. A crude translation into English of what she said in an interview earlier this year:

I decided to come and study in Europe because wanted a place where my husband and I were able to conduct the studies that we are interested. In Mexico there was no chance, not for his area, which is neuroscience, or mine that is the study of diseases with molecular techniques. We're looking at a site where the two could do what we wanted, and found Cambridge.

After earning her doctorate at Cambridge, she joined the Institute of Zoology in London.

Acevedo-Whitehouse's ties to Mexico have been useful in her research. Her whale disease study is in collaboration with colleagues in Mexico, and she currently serves as the European delegate for the Mexican Society of Marine Mastozoology (SOMEMMA).

Tags: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, zoology, marine biology

Blogroll Update

Here are some new blogs on the women in science blogroll.

General and Miscellaneous

The Alternative Scientist is a group blog about "alternative career options for scientists. There are many career paths for a scientist in addition to the traditional tenure track, and the goal of this blog is to provide a forum for open and honest discussions about the various possibilities." Women who blog there include Bean mom "an ex-scientist mommy adjusting to stay-at-home-momhood" (personal blog: The Bean Chronicles), CAE, who has a PhD in molecular cell biology and works in industry (personal blog: VWXYNot?), Mad Hatter, a bioscience faculty member, (personal blog: A Mad Tea-Party), science cog "a newly appointed tenure-track assistant professor in the mathematical sciences at a large research university in the United States" (personal blog: Ivory Tower Tales), The Mad Chemist a PhD chemist working in industry (personal blog: Mad Chemist Chick), and Scientist Mother, who is "pursuing my PhD at a university in Western Canada" (personal blog: ScientistMother: raising my own little experiment). They are interested in hearing from you too:

We welcome anyone who is interested in discussing alternative science careers, whether it be to share information, advice, musings, or personal experiences. You do not have to be in an alternative science position to join us!

There is information in the blog's sidebar on how to contact them.

The Powerful Mind Coaching Blog is the professional outlet of Mary Coussons-Read, Professor of Psychology and Health and Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Denver, who provides "cohesive life coaching for parents in academia". She says:

I founded Powerful Mind to provide what I never had as a junior faculty member-advice and support from folks who were my advocates to help me get where I needed to go professionally and personally. Now that I’m a Full Professor and Associate Dean, I’ve been on both sides of the tenure and promotion process, and have (and still do) struggled with simultaneously being a Professor, Partner, and Parent. I am passionate about working with clients to help avoid the pitfalls of balancing academic and family life. At the core of Powerful Mind is my commitment to providing a safe, professional, and deeply supportive environment to help parents who are working to succeed as academic professionals.

And, while her mission is official about "parents" in academia, her blogging is mostly about being a mom.

{teen}skepchick is the younger sister blog to skepchick. It's got all the skepticality of skepchick, but with teenaged bloggers, a younger target audience and less explicit content and language. For more details, check out their welcome post.

Cloud writes at Wandering Scientist . She says "I'm a scientist/techie and a Mommy. Pre-Pumpkin, Hubby and I loved to travel. Someday, we may even travel again. My blog has as many interests as I do."

Now, what was I doing? is the blog of JaneB, "a female scientist with an academic post in NorthernCity in England. I'm single and share a small house in MarketTown with a 'second-hand' middle-aged and opinionated cat (Furball4)."

Life Sciences and Scientists

Samia blogs at 49 percent. She's "a senior biochemistry major with plans for graduate studies in a related field. Right now I'm working as an intern at an EPA laboratory [. . .]"

Professor in Training is "a (soon to be) new (female) Assistant Professor in the biological sciences at Really Big U. After losing my social life (and skills) during my PhD, I've managed to reconstruct something resembling a life during my postdoc years and am hoping that the move to the tenure track won't lead to a nervous breakdown. I guess only time will tell ..."

Bug Girl blogs about entomology, gardening, ranting and nerdery. She has a PhD in entomology and "[a]fter a decade or so as a professor, she decided to jump the academic ship and went on to be a dot.com designer, web mistress, forensic consultant, and general attention whore." She also guest blogs at skepchick.

Panthera studentessa El is "an undergraduate zoology student with a cultural studies minor at a large research university in the midwest (technically I'm done with my degree, but I'm taking an extra year to do research and lab work before I begin applying to graduate schools)"

Pamela Ronald blogs at Tomorrow's Table. Ronald is a Professor of Plant Pathology and Chair of the Plant Genomics Program at the University of California, Davis, where she studies the role that genes play in a plant’s response to its environment. She uses her blog to "explore topics related to genetics, food and farming."

academia and me is the blog of female in academia who is "in the biological sciences, currently in the last phase of writing my PhD thesis. There is also a male in academia, too. We have two little children and try to one day be one of those double-career couples who actually manage to combine family and science."

Physical Sciences and Scientists

Mad Chemist Chick is "a Ph.D. organic chemist who recently escaped from the treacherous halls of academe into the Promised Land of Industry."


Computer Science and Mathematics

Tech Her is the blog of Telle Whitney, the CEO of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. "Telle is a senior technical woman who is dedicated to the recruitment, retention and advancement of technical women in high tech and academia."

Confessions of a Mathematician is the blog of Courtney, "a math graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed (or not...) math comic, Brown Sharpie."

Tags: women in science, blogs

Vote for the "most celebrated female scientist of all time"

L'Oréal's For Women in Science Program is sponsoring a new UK website where you can vote for the most influential woman scientist. The candidates span more than a thousand years* and a wide range of scientific specialties:

• Mary Anning (1799-1847), paleontologist and "the greatest fossilist the world ever knew"
  
• Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923), mathematician, electrical engineer and suffragette
  
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943- ), astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars
  
• Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), first woman to graduate from medical school
• Linda Buck (1947-), biologist who helped figure out how the human olfactory (smell) system works
• Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941), astronomer who studied the spectra of the stars
  
• Rachel Carson (1907-1964), biologist who campaigned for the environment
  
• Gerty Cori (1896-1957), biochemist who studied energy metabolism in the human body
  
• Marie Curie (1867-1934), physicist and chemist who studied radioactivity
  
• Ann Dowling, professor of mechanical engineering who works on "boys stuff - aeroplanes, submarines and oil exploration"
• Gertrude Elion (1918-1999), innovative pharmacologist who produced new drugs for leukemia, malaria, and herpes
  
• Dian Fossey (1932-1985), expert of the great apes in Rwanda, who was murdered because by poachers
  
• Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), X-ray crystallographer whose work was important in determining the structure of DNA
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917), pioneering physician and campaigner for women's rights
• Sophie Germain (1776-1831), mathematician who was forced to take on the identity of a man
  
• Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1977), physicist who studied the structure of the atomic nucleus
  
• Jane Goodall (1934- ), expert on chimpanzee behavior and advocate for wildlife conservation
  
• Alice Hamilton (1969-1970), doctor and social reformer who founded the science of occupational medicine
• Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), astronomer who discovered comets and stars, first woman (along with Mary Somerville) awarded membership in the Royal Society
• Grace Hopper (1906-1992), pioneer computer scientist and Rear Admiral in the US Navy
  
• Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994), one of the main founders of protein crystallography
  
• Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415), mathematician and astronomer who was killed by a mob, who "felt threatened by her scholarship and scientific knowledge"
  
• Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie who discovered artificially created radioactivity
  
• Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000), actress and inventor of "frequency hopping" method that is used in modern communication technology
  
• Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909 - ), biologist who first isolated nerve grown factor
• Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971), crystallographer and first woman elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
• Ada, Countess Lovelace (1915-1852), founder of scientific computing
• Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), geneticist who discovered "jumping genes"
  
• Anne McLaren (1927-2007), geneticist who "paved the way for development of in vitro fertilisation"
• Lise Meitner (1878-1968), physicist who described nuclear fission
• Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), pioneering astronomer
  
• Christiane Nusslein Volhard (1942 - ), developmental biologist and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Biology
• Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), nurse and noted statistician, who was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society
  
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), astronomer who showed the sun is mainly composed of hydrogen
  
• Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), respected mycologist and children's book author
  
• Emily Roebling (1844-1903), "silent engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge"
  
• Nancy Rothwell (1957- ), neuroscientist who studies brain injury
  
• Mary Somerville (1780-1872), "the first popular science writer"
  
• Rosalyn Yalow (1921-), "medical physicist" who "won a Nobel prize for her work developing the radioimmunoassay technique"
  

I think it's hard to compare the Nobel Prize winners (Buck, Cori, Curie, Elion, Goeppert Mayer, Hodgkin, Joliet-Curie, Levi-Montalcini, McClintock, Nusslein Volhard, Yalow), to the 19th and 20th century women who were social activists as well as scientists. You can make your choice at www.womeninscience.co.uk**

* But mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries.

** I can't actually get the "Vote Now" button to work. Maybe the site doesn't like Macs? or maybe you have to be in the UK? I don't know.

(via The Telegraph)
Image: "Miss Mary Anning, the celebrated geologist of Lyme Regis"
Tags: women in science

The worst jobs in science

MSN has put together a list of the "10 worst jobs in science" that are dirty or uncomfortable. Only one woman made the list:

Rosalind Rolland is a scientist at the New England Aquarium who "pioneered whale-feces research in 1999".

"It surprised even me how much you can learn about a whale through its feces," says Rolland, who recently published the most complete study of right whales ever conducted. "You can test for pregnancy, measure hormones and biotoxins, examine its genetics. You can even tell individuals apart."

Interestingly, Rolland uses specially-trained dogs to sniff out the floating whale poop from a distance. (Pictured are Rolland and Fargo)

Then there is Liz Warren, a postdoc in the Bioastronautics and Fundamental Space Biology Research Program at USRA, who studies the effect of gravity on physiology at Johnson Space Center. It's her test subjects who are the ones with the "worst" job, however. They spend 21 straight days in bed that's tilted head down, and only get a break to spend time in a centrifuge.

I doubt that any of the researchers profiled actually think that what they do is really "the worst" - more likely they find their jobs to be much more interesting and stimulating than sitting at a desk. And they don't mind getting a bit dirty.

Tags: Rosalind Rolland, Liz Warren

Interviews with Australian scientists

In 1993 the Australian Academy of Science started interviewing Australian scientists about "their early life, development of interest in science, mentors, research work, and other aspects of their careers." The resulting interviews are available (as transcripts) at Iinterviews with Australian scientists. Thirty-six women scientists are included, and their careers span most of the 20th century, from marine biologist Isobel Bennett (1909-2008) to biomedical scientist Sabine Piller (1970- ). The biological sciences are heavily represented, but there are also physicists, chemists, and geologists.

What I especially like about the interviews are the glimpses of growing up in Australia along with memories of studying science and working as a scientist. The interviews are ongoing, with Professor Dorothy Hill ("a career in geology and a trailblazer for women in science") scheduled to be added soon. The current list of interviews:

• Dr Yvonne Aitken (1911-2004), Agricultural scientist
• Dr Leanne Armand (1968- ), Micropalaeontologist
• Dr Isobel Bennett (1909-2008), Marine biologist
• Professor Marcela Bilek (1968- ), Physicist
• Dr Natashia Boland (1967- ), Operations researcher
• Dr Kristen Bremmell (1970- ), Chemical engineer
• Professor Julie Campbell (1946- ), Vascular biologist
• Dr Tracy Dawes-Gromadzki (1972- ), Ecologist
• Dr Liz Dennis (1943- ), Plant biologist
• Miss Margaret Dick (1918- ), Food microbiologist
• Professor Jenny Graves (1941- ), Geneticist
• Natasha Henrick (1972- ), Geophysicist
• Professor Mollie Holman (1930- ), Physiologist
• Dr Shirley Jeffrey (1930- ), Marine biologist
• Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith (1926- ), Nephrologist
• Dr Jean Laby (1915- ), Physicist
• Professor Elspeth McLachlan (1942- ), Physiologist
• Professor Helene Marsh (1945- ), Environmental scientist
• Professor Nancy Millis (1922- ), Microbiologist
• Professor Beryl Nashar (1923- ), Geologist
• Dr Moira O'Bryan (1966- ), Medical scientist
• Dr June Olley (1924- ), Fish technologist
• Dr Sabine Piller (1970- ), Medical research scientist
• Professor Cheryl Praeger (1948- ), Mathematician
• Professor Marilyn Renfree (1947- ), Physiologist
• Professor Pamela Rickard (1928-2002), Biochemist
• Professor Lesley Rogers (1943- ), Neurobiologist
• Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos (1951- ), Chemical engineer
• Professor Fiona Stanley (1946- ), Epidemiologist
• Dr Sally Stewart-Wade (1969- ), Plant pathologist
• Dr Liz Truswell (1941- ), Geologist
• Dr Gretna Weste (1917- ), Botanist
• Professor Ann Woolcock (1937-2001), Medical scientist
• Dr Patricia Woolley (1932- ), Zoologist
• Dr Jane Wright (1954- ), Entomologist
• Dr Jean Youatt (1925- ), Chemist
  

For biographical information, click the "Teachers Notes" link that accompanies each article.

Tags: women in science, Australia

Added to the Blogroll

Added to the Women in Science blogs list:

• Science and Medical Journalist Virginia Hughes
• PhD Candidate Jennifer Jacquet, who blogs at Shifting Baselines about the ocean and fisheries
• Anne-Marie, an undergrad in Zoology and Conservation Biology, who blogs at pondering pikaia
• Vanessa Woods, a researcher with the Hominoid Psychology Research Group, who blogs at Bonobo Handshake
  

Tags: women in science, blogs

The Worst Jobs in Science

Popular Science just published its annual list of the the 10 worst jobs in science. Rosalind Rolland of the New England Aquarium made #10 on the list as a Whale-Feces Researcher.
The gravity research subjects used by NASA Johnson Space center researcher Liz Warren were #7. I'm not sure those aren't worse than #3: elephant vasectomist.
Tags: worst jobs in science, Rosalind Rolland, Liz Warren

March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology: Janet Rossant and Anne McLaren

This year's March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology was won by two female scientists: Janet Rossant, chief of research in development and stem cell biology at the University of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, and Anne McLaren at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute in Cambridge.

Janet Rossant's lab studies early mouse embryogenesis and human stem cell lines. According to her science.ca profile:

Dr. Rossant is internationally recognized for her pioneering research in mouse genetics; she says that the study of mice helps researchers to learn more about human genetics. She genetically manipulates the mouse genome – the total genes carried by a cell – to address problems that may arise during development. Because these mouse cells represent the early cells that form the placenta in humans, it becomes possible to predict what can go wrong in early pregnancy.

Rossant was interviewed about stem cell research on CBC radio's Sunday Edition in February (listen).

Anne McLaren was the first to grow a mouse embryo in a test tube then implant it into a "mother" for natural birth. Her lab currently studies the development of mouse "Primordial Germ Cells". In 2001 the International Journal of Developmental Biology published a touching tribute from her research students of the 1960s and 1970s:

The quality of Anne as a scientist and as a person is reflected in her role as a supervisor of research students. this story of what she did, and still does for them is a measure of her many talents. In Terri Hargrave's words "she was our role model: scientist, mentor, friend, mother and now grandmother!" Her students from the Edinburgh days, wish to record our very warm affection and heartfelt thanks.

Note: I didn't find any information about Rossant and McLaren winning the award on the March of Dimes web site. My source of information on the prize is the March 23, 2007 issue of Science.

Tags: March of Dimes Prize, Janet Rossant, Anne McLaren

Interview with Jane Goodall

The latest issue of Discover magazine has an interview with primatologist Jane Goodall. She reminisces about her decades-long study of chimpanzee behavior which started with a passion for studying animals.

When you arrived in Africa, did you imagine you’d be spending 47 years involved with chimpanzees?

No [laughs]. How could I have back then? One year there seemed enormous at the time. I was only 23. I was invited to Africa by a school friend whose parents had moved to Kenya. One of their friends said, “If you’re interested in animals, you should meet Dr. Louis Leakey.” So I went to see him at the Coryndon Museum [where Leakey was director], and he ended up offering me a job as his secretary. During the time I worked for him, I had the opportunity to go out on the Serengeti with him. He knew I didn’t care about clothes and hair, dresses and parties, and that I really, really, really wanted to live with animals in the bush. And that I didn’t care about a degree—I just wanted to learn.

She also talks about her work to preserve the chimp habitat in Tanzania's Gombe National park.

You can learn more about the Goodall Institute's current chimpanzee research on the Gombe Chimpanzee blog, which cleverly integrates observations of chimp behavior with Google Earth locations.

Tags: Jane Goodall

Ruth Patrick, "den mother of ecology"

The Philadelphia Enquirer recently profiled 99-year-old Ruth Patrick, the so-called "den mother of ecology". Patrick has worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia since 1933.

Decades ago, long before pollution became a public concern, Patrick discovered that diatoms are prime indicators of water quality because the cells' silica walls so readily absorb pollutants.

"You see," she says, "diatoms are like detectives."

She also devised a model - known as the Patrick Principle - for gauging the health of a body of water by evaluating all the life in it, from diatoms to insects to fish.

If this sounds familiar, it is because Patrick pioneered an ecosystem approach that now is common knowledge.

Patrick began working for the Academy as an unpaid assistant curator of microscopy.

No other women were at the academy. Patrick wore pants to blend in, and she was once chastised for wearing lipstick.

"But I was determined," she says. "I was going to get my Ph.D. and I was going to write my thesis on diatoms."

More than ten years after her arrival, in 1945, she was finally put on the payroll. Two years later, she founded a new department that is now called the "Patrick Center for Environmental Research". In addition to her field work and research, she also taught generations of students, and used her knowledge to influence environmental policy.

In 1975, Patrick became the first woman and the first environmentalist appointed to DuPont's board of directors.

"Just a charming, remarkable person," says former CEO Edgar S. Woolard Jr., who began an environmental push at DuPont in 1989, partly due to her influence. "When she spoke up in the boardroom, whether it was on the environment or business, everyone listened. She just had that kind of stature."

Patrick finally stopped doing field work a few years ago, but she still pursues her research on diatoms at the Academy.

Read the whole article for more about Patrick and the Patrick Principle (via the Knight Science Journalism tracker).

Related Links:

• Patrick's Academy of Natural Sciences Profile, with link to a 2001 interview video
• WHYY "Hometown Legends" on Patrick with interview video
• Urban Rivers Awareness: Diatoms in Environmental Research
  
• Patrick in the Ecology Hall of Fame
• Lemelson-MIT Program Inventor of the Week
  
• Patrick's profile at "Dupont Heritage"
• Patrick's profile in the South Carolina Hall of Science and Technology at the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center
• Patrick's NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award
  
• Patrick's National Medal of Science Page

Tags: Ruth Patrick, ecology

Female Canadian Scientists

Most of my posts have focused on science and scientists who were born or work in the U.S. I'm trying to remedy that a bit, but I'm mostly limited to sites in English. Anyone who knows of good sites about female scientists that aren't in English should feel free to leave a comment or email me (my address is in the sidebar). So, in the spirit of internationalism, this post focuses on America's neighbor to the north.

Science.ca has profiles of 50 Canadian women in science. The profiles range from pathologist Maud Abbott (1869-1940), to mathematician Cathleen Synge Morawetz, to geochemist Alice Wilson (1881-1964) to molecular biologist and current President of Princeton University Shirley Tilghman. It's a database worth perusing .

Tags: women in science, Canada

Field Museum's Women in Science

The Field Natural History Museum in Chicago has interviews with thirteen women scientists in their employ, who work in fields ranging from the biological sciences to geology. They share their thoughts on both their own research and their experiences as women in science.

The site also profiles two pioneers from the museum's past, explorer Delia Akeley (1875-1970) who discovered new African animal species, and botanist Margery Carlson (1892-1985) who collected plant samples in South America and Europe and was a professor of botany at Northwestern. They both had their share of adventures.

From the Field Museum profile of Delia Akeley, on collecting an elephant specimen:

"Scarcely breathing, and with legs trembling so I could hardly stand, I waited for the elephant to move forward," she wrote in her book "All True!" "Dimly through the mist the dark shape came slowly from behind the bush, exposing a splendid pair of tusks and a great flapping ear which was my target. With nerves keyed to the point of action I fired, and the first elephant I shot at fell lifeless among the dew-wet ferns . . . He was a splendid elephant, standing ten feet ten inches tall at the shoulders and carrying 180 pounds of ivory. In his back was a great festering wound caused by a poisonous spear. The iron blade had worked its way into his flesh to his rib and he must have suffered agonies."

I'm not particularly fond of this method of "collecting" animals, but there is no doubt Akeley did her job well.

From the GWIS profile of Margery Carlson:

An energetic and adventurous woman, Dr. Carlson’s primary interaction with Field Museum was through her plant collecting program in Mexico and Central America in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Using a station wagon or truck-camper as both vehicle and motel, Margery, together with her companion Kate Staley, was able to reach remote areas in southern Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Each expedition took several months and came close to or exceeded 10,000 miles of travel.

What was especially remarkable about Margery’s field trips was that both she and her companion were gray-haired ladies embarking on trips that would challenge someone half their age. The trips were not without adventures and minor mishaps. One expedition ended with the truck smashed at the bottom of a canyon but with the two women only slightly injured. Another adventure Margery loved to recount was the time she and Kate were eating lunch along the side of the road in northern Mexico, when they found themselves face-to-face with two men brandishing machetes and demanding money. Sizing up the situation quickly (these were two poor farmers and not dangerous bandits), Margery proceeded to admonish them in Spanish: "Don’t you realize you could have scared us to death? And if that had happened you could never go to heaven!", whereupon she invited them to have some lunch — which they did.

Two amazing women!

Tags: Field Museum, Delia Akeley, Margery Carlson

Four Thousand Years of Women in Science

4000 Years of Women in Science is a database of women scientists from ancient Egypt, Greece, China and India to the 20th Century. You can browse by date, name or field of study.

The biographies are very brief, but would make great jumping-off point for further research.

Illustration: Merit Ptah, Egyptian physician, ~2700 BCE (image from Wikipedia_.

Tags: history, women in science

Women with Significant Contributions to Science

The San Diego Supercomputer Center presents biographies of 16 women who had "significant contributions" to science. The women they included:

• Mary Anning (1799-1847): "Finder of Fossils"

• Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852: "Analyst, Metaphysician, Founder of Scientific Computing"

• Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941): "Theorist of Star Spectra"

• May Edward Chinn (1896-1960): "Physician", member of the Society of Surgical Oncolgy and master of Public Health.

• Rosa Smith Eigenmann (1858-1947): "First Woman Ichthyologist of Any Accomplishment"

• Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958), "Pioneeer Molecular Biologist", who helped determine the structure of DNA

• Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972): "Mother of Modern Management"

• Sophie Germain (1776-1831): "Revolutionary Mathematician"

• Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972): "Nobelist in Physics", developer of the nuclear shell model of atomic nuclei.

• Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994): "A Founder of Protein Crystallography"

• Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905-1993): "A Gift of Stars", researcher on variable stars in globular clusters, and writer of a popular astronomy column in the Toronto Star

• Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992): "Pioneer Computer Scientist"

• Lise Meitner (1878-1968): "A Battle for Ultimate Truth", who produced the first theoretical explanation of the fission process.

• Emmy Noether (1882-1935): "Creative Mathematical Genius"

• Rózsa Péter (1905-1977): "Founder of Recursive Function Theory"

• Roger Arliner Young (1899-1964): "Lifelong Struggle of a Zoologist", first African-American woman to receive a zoology doctorate