Throughout my entire educational career, as it is for most students, there was an immense lacking of teachings about women in science. This has proven to be no different in my graduate career. I've learned plenty about Birge, Juday, and Hasler but no women have every been mentioned.
To try and fill this gap, I decided to do some research on women who have advanced the field of freshwater science.
Rachel Carson 1907-1964
You've probably heard of Rachel Carson because of her book, Silent Spring, but did you know that she also worked for the Bureau of Fisheries (which would later become part of the US Fish and Wildlife Service) as an aquatic biologist? After Carson graduated with her Master's in Zoology from John Hopkins, she intended to pursue her doctorate. However, faced with supporting her family during the Great Depression she accepted a position of Junior Aquatic Biologist on a salary of just $19.25 a week. When she was first hired, she was one of two women employed with the Bureau in a non-clerical position. In her time at the USFWS, she was a science communicator before #scicomm was trending. The homophobic culture of the 1950s and Caron's relentless dedication Silent Spring's credibility, due to threats of defamation, forced Carson and her partner, Dorthy Freeman, to maintain a private relationship.
In her lifetime she:
Worked as a Junior Aquatic Biologist at the Bureau of Fisheries and created a series of radio programs called "Romance Under the Waters," which taught about coastal and marine life, essentially a podcast series! Carson worked her way through the ranks and eventually became the Editor-in-Chief of Publications for the USFWS.
"Visited Chesapeake Bay region, where she spoke with watermen and toured commercial plants and conservation facilities in an effort to understand the economics and culture of the area,"(USFWS). Carson understood the importance of connecting with others outside of the scientist bubble.
Wrote multiple books such as Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us (New York Times' best-seller for 86 weeks), and The Edge of the Sea which highlighted her unique ability to express complicated scientific information in clear and appealing language that would help readers engage with the natural world.
Published Silent Spring. Silent Spring revealed the lasting effects of DDT and its ability to bioaccumulate up the food chain from insects, to fish, to birds, and eventually to humans. Its publication led to a review of the United States' pesticide policy and the banning of DDT. Carson is credited starting the modern environmentalist movement.
Carson would pass away at the age of 57 from breast cancer, just two years after Silent Spring was published.
Kathleen Carpenter 1891-1970
Kathleen Carpenter is known as the "mother of freshwater ecology," because of her work to distinguish freshwater ecology which was often over looked in favor of marine biology.
She began her education at the University College of Wales (UCW) Aberystwyth where she received her Bachelor's of Science degree. She continued to study freshwater in her doctoral studies also at UCW. During WWI, Carpenter changed her last name from Zimmerman because of the general animosity towards those with German backgrounds.
In her lifetime she:
Researched and proved the negative effects of mining activities on aquatic life. "In studies in the headwaters of the Teifi, she discovered that within a year of a mine recommencing activities in 1924, the mollusc Ancylus fluviatilis and Trichoptera larvae had disappeared. She also demonstrated experimentally the toxic effects of metallic salts on minnows, trout and sticklebacks, finding that colloidal precipitate of heavy metal formed on the gills, causing death by suffocation,"(Duigan).
Wrote and illustrated the first freshwater ecology textbook, Life in the Inland Waters.
Taught at Illinois State University, Radcliffe College (which was developed for women who were trying to gain access to Harvard), and Washington College. At Washington College, she became a member of the Sigma Delta Epsilon Society, which is now known as Graduate Women in Science. She was a steadfast advocate for her students, especially women in STEM.
Carpenter passed away in 1970 at the age of 79.
Margaret Ann Chapman 1937-2009
Margaret Ann Chapman is recognized as one of New Zealand's leading and most influential limnologists.
In her lifetime she:
Graduated with her PhD from Glasgow University in 1964. Her dissertation focused on the population of zooplankton, specifically the calanoid copepod (a small crustacean) Diaptomus gracilis.
Taught at Auckland University in Zoology where she researched population dynamics of zooplankton in the area lakes. The papers she published from these surveys set the benchmarks for such work in New Zealand.
Co-authored An Introduction to Freshwater Crustacea of New Zealand, which remains to be the definitive source of information on this group of animals.
Helped establish the School of Science at Waikato University.
Was the first woman to lead an expedition in Antartica in 1971 where they surveyed frozen lakes in the Taylor Dry Valley.
Was a founding member of the Australian Society for Limnology and co-founder of the New Zealand Limnological Society.
Chapman passed away in 2009
Margaret Bryan Davis 1931-
Margaret Davis was a paleoecologist, which means that she studied the relationship between ancient organisms and their environments. Her research involving the recovery of pollen from lake sediment samples is used today as a basis for demonstrating climate change.
In her lifetime she:
Studied palynology (study of pollen and spores, usually from ancient times) as Fulbright scholar.
Graduated from Harvard with her PhD in 1957.
Published a paper that revolutionized how pollen records were interpreted. Her research considered how various tree species and forest communities migrated back and forth across eastern North America during the previous 14,000 years, challenging the idea that plant an animal communities tend to be stable. Her work helped to develop the basis for predicting changes in forest composition in response to climate change.
Was a staunch advocate for equal pay after being paid less than average salary of an associate professor, although she was a full professor.
“Now in my sixties, I find I have achieved the goal I was striving for all of my life. I am a professor in a department with a strong graduate program. I have a group of excellent students and my research combines ecology and paleoecology. In this benign environment I spend relatively little time on women’s issues, but a decade or so ago I added up all the time I had spent, especially in my early years, maneuvering for laboratory space and for a faculty position, fighting for equal wages, taking on administration in order to improve my bargaining power, serving on committees on equity issues, mentoring women from undergraduates to full professors, and it comes to an appalling 25% of my total investment in science. My experience isn’t unusual, either. In many ways I was advantaged by my education—many women have spent more energy than I maintaining their toehold on the academic ladder. Think how many women scientists there are in my generation and younger, all of us expending a quarter or more of our time and energy removing obstacles placed in our paths to slow us down. What a waste for human society that all that time and energy and talent didn’t go into science instead” (Langenheim, 1996).
Received the Eminent Ecologist Award in 1993 from the Ecological Society of America.
Served as president of the Ecological Society of America from 1987 to 1988.
Served as president of the American Quaternary Association from 1978 to 1980.
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1982.
Head of Ecology and Behavioral Ecology at the University of Minnesota.
Rosemary Lowe-McConnell 1921-2014
Rosemary "Ro" Lowe-McConnel conducted fieldwork in Africa and South America on the taxonomy, evolution, and ecology of tropical fishes. Her work on tilapia, serves as a critical basis for studies on fish farming in tropical waters.
In her lifetime she:
Graduated with her bachelor's, master's, and doctorate from Liverpool University.
Worked for the Freshwater Biological Association researching the use of freshwater fisheries for wartime food.
Studied cichlid fisheries in Lake Malawi as basis to create a sustainable fishery program.
Worked as a Research Officer with the British Overseas Research Service based on Lake Victoria. While there, she helped found the African Fisheries Research Organization, now the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute. "Her main purpose was to study the biology of tilapia in the lakes of east Africa. Ro produced a large number of scientific papers, providing the basis for many later studies assessing the impact of fishing and other human activities on fish populations," (Greenwood 2015). Lowe-McConnel was forced to resign from her position in 1953 after she married due to a rule preventing the employment of a married woman in the British Public Service.
Continued her research on a volunteer basis further expanding the knowledge of tropical fishes. Lowe-McConnel began a fish collection from the Okavango Delta which is now housed in the Natural History Museum of London. She also spent several years in South America surveying the fish in unstudied regions. On one of her trips to Brazil, Lowe-McConnell made some of the first studies of the ecology of Amazonian fishes in the Mata Grosso region, which is an area of high endemism among fishes.
Received the Linnean Medal from the Linnean Society in 1997; at the time she was only the sixth woman to receive the medal, compared with 140 men.
"As she received her medal, LoweMcConnell uttered 'Not bad for someone who hasn’t had a job since 1953!' (Downes, 2019).
Lowe-McConnell passed away in at the age of 93.
Minna E. Jewell
Minna E. Jewell received her PhD in 1918 from the University of Illinois and would then go on to teach at Kansas Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) and Thornton Junior College. She was a leader in identification of freshwater sponges, and even today, her work has not been improved upon.
In her lifetime she:
Researched the effects of acidic lakes on aquatic life, prairie streams, groundwater-lake interactions, and freshwater sponges. Her work on these topics is thought to be some of the first.
Much of her work was was published in ESA (Ecological Society of America) journals, and despite being a charter member, she never received recognition for her work by the society or the limnological community in her lifetime.
Unfortunately, there is very little information I could find on Minna E. Jewell's background, but the fine folks at UW-Madison's Center for Limnology did a great job of summarizing her accomplishments.
Harriet "Hattie" Bell Merrill 1863-1915
Hattie Bell Merrill was the first recorded woman to be involved in limnological work a the University of Wisconsin- Madison. In her time there, she worked with E.A. Brige, one of the better known limnologists. However, in the ~20 years she worked with Birge, her work or contributions were never mentioned in any of his journals or publications. Merrill was an expert in the taxonomy of Cladocera (an order of tiny aquatic algae-eating crustaceans), her research was vital in understanding the role that Daphnia (a genus of under Cladocera) play in water quality.
In her lifetime she:
Graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with her Bachelor's degree.
Graduated from the University of Chicago with her Master's degree.
Merrill passed away at the age of 52 in the middle of pursuing her doctorate degree at the University of Illinois. Diaptomus Merrilli was named for her.
Emmeline Moore 1877-1968
Emmeline Moore single-handedly led the way for the first, and most comprehensive survey of New York's water resources. Moore appreciated not only the significance of thorough monitoring programs, but also that those results could be used to shape policy and management.
In her lifetime she:
Received her PhD Cornell in 1916.
Became the first woman biologist for the New York State Department of Conservation.
Performed a fish productivity study describing the biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of Lake George. This led to the decision by the legislature that similar surveys should be made covering the entire state. These reports were extremely valuable when the State Water Pollution Control board had to survey and classify streams as part of the water pollution control law of 1949.
Directed the biological survey of the state's surface waters and produced 17 separate reports covering each major watershed in the state. As part of these reports, Moore commissioned two artists to illustrate many of fish she found. Moore understood the importance of sharing the significance of these results with the public, and these illustrations were a way to make that link.
Was elected the first woman president of the American Fisheries Society for 1927-28.
Was the Director of the State Biological Survey in 1932.
Moore died in 1968 at age 91.
Ann Haven Morgan 1882-1966
Morgan was one of the early women involved in limnology and zoology. She was an expert on the taxonomy and biology of mayflies. Her work on mayflies and freshwater science earned her the nicknames of "Mayfly Morgan," "Water Bug Lady," and "Big Fish Lady."
In her lifetime she:
Received her PhD from Cornell in 1912.
Taught at Mt. Holyoke College, eventually becoming the Zoology Department chair.
Was One of the first women elected to the Entomological Society of America.
One of three women out of a group of 250 featured in the 1993 of American Men of Science Journal.
Wrote three text books, Field Book of Ponds and Streams, Field Book of Animals in Winter, and Kinships of Animals and Man: A Textbook of Animal Biology. The Field Book of Ponds and Streams contained all her own photographs and illustrations.
Morgan passed away in 1966 at the age of 84
Ruth Patrick 1907-2013
Ruth Patrick's research on diatoms, biological diversity, and pollution changed the way people understand how threats to a single organism can affect an entire ecosystem.
Patrick received both her master's and doctorate from the University of Virginia in Botany. She would then go on to "volunteer" the Academy of Natural Sciences, only because they refused to pay her because women in science were so rare.
In her lifetime she:
Consolidated and curated the Academy of Natural Sciences diatom collection, including creating a new filing system of taxa that would lead to the collection becoming the largest in the world.
Devised a new way to measure the affects of pollution on aquatic ecosystems by using diatoms; the previous standard was simply measuring chemical concentrations to describe waterbody healthThe belief that biodiversity is the chief indicator of water health is now known as the Patrick Principle.
Founded the Academy's limnology department in 1947, which would later become her namesake. One of the department's first projects was a survey of streams in the Conestoga River Basin. The survey brought together researchers from the fields of biology, physics, and chemistry. Patrick was one of the first to use a multi-disciplinary approach to stream surveys.
Researched the use of wetlands and tidal flats as wastewater treatment systems. This work would lead to watershed management projects and funding for constructing wetlands around the world.
Co-authored the Clean Water Act and advised Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan on environmental issues.
Received the National Medal of Science in 1996.
Patrick passed away in 2013 at the age of 105
There are many more women who were fundamental in the expansion of freshwater science than we are led to believe. I hope you enjoyed reading about these trailblazing women as much as I enjoyed researching them. We all deserve to be inspired by someone who looks like us!
Note- Is there someone who should be on this list who I missed? Let me know in the comments!
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