Science > Biology Archives - Page 10 of 11

Suzanne Cory

Suzanne Cory is one of Australia’s most distinguished molecular biologists. Her research has had a major impact in the fields of immunology and cancer.

Aila Inkeri Keto

In 1982 she and and her husband formed the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society, of which she has been President for the past 30 years.

Shirley Aldythea Marshall Seymour Andrews

Aboriginal rights activist, Biochemist, Communist, dancer and historian

Joan Wiffen was a self-taught palaeontologist who greatly advanced knowledge of fossil reptiles in New Zealand. Wiffen, who described herself as ‘a rank amateur, a Hawkes Bay housewife in fact, with no scientific training, just … a great deal of curiosity’, made some of New Zealand’s most important scientific breakthroughs. Despite a lack of formal education or specialised equipment, Joan’s excavations of fossil remains in a remote Hawke’s Bay valley produced the first evidence that dinosaurs had once lived on the New Zealand landmass.

Pérrine Moncrieff

In 1925 Pérrine wrote New Zealand birds and how to identify them. Although she intended her book for the untrained bird-lover, it influenced scientists as well as lay people and ran to five editions.

Averil Margaret Lysaght

From an early age she developed an interest in natural history. At 15 she discovered a new species of a noctuid moth on Mt Egmont, which was described in 1921 by the entomologist G. V. Hudson as Melanchra averilla in her honour. In 1923 Lysaght commenced studies at Victoria University College, Wellington. She graduated BSc in 1928 and MSc in 1929 with second-class honours in zoology; her thesis in entomology was on the biology of Eucolaspis.

Ada Mary a’Beckett

Alongside her employment, a’Beckett played an active role in the life of her community, fitting her ‘philanthropic activities … [into] the leisure moments of a busy professional life (Argus, 12 February 1927), fulfilling the adage that it was ‘the busiest women who can always find time to do a little more’ (Argus, 18 February 1927). To Melbourne journalist, ‘Vesta’ she was an example of the contribution which educated women could make to philanthropic work (Argus, 23 January 1935). She was a founder of the Victorian Women Graduates Association, took leadership roles in both the Janet Clarke Hall Committee and the Lyceum Club, and was also a member of the National Council of Women and the Victoria League. However, her most important contribution was through the Free Kindergarten Union, of which she was the foundation vice-president, president from 1919-39 and life president from then until her death. She was one of the founders, and later a lecturer at the Kindergarten Teaching College and founder of the Australian Association for Pre-School Child Development which was responsible for the establishment of the Lady Gowrie model centres across Australia. Kindergartens, she believed, had the potential to ‘eradicate the weaknesses of human nature and strengthen the good points’ and might in time ‘do away altogether with gaols and asylums’ (Argus, 19 August 1944).

Greta Stevenson

Botanist, mycologist, mountaineer, teacher

Rachel Carson

A marine biologist and nature writer, Rachel Carson catalyzed the global environmental movement with her 1962 book Silent Spring. Outlining the dangers of chemical pesticides, the book led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides and sparked the movement that ultimately led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Gertrud Woker

Gertrud Johanna Woker was a Swiss suffragist, biochemist, toxicologist and peace activist.