13 Facts About Edith Clements

Edith Gertrude Clements, known as Edith S Clements and Edith Schwartz Clements, was an American botanist and pioneer of botanical ecology who was the first woman to be awarded a Ph.

Edith Clements was married to botanist Frederic Clements, with whom she collaborated throughout her professional life.

Edith Clements Gertrude Schwartz was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, to George and Emma Schwartz.

Edith Clements's father was a pork packer from Omaha, Nebraska.

Edith Clements wrote her dissertation on "The Relation of Leaf Structure to Physical Factors" in 1904.

Edith Clements earned her doctoral degree in botany in 1904, becoming the first woman to be awarded a Ph.

In 1909, Edith Clements was hired as an instructor in botany by the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where Frederic had been hired two years before to head up the botany department.

In 1917, Frederic gave up teaching and began doing research funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC For many years thereafter, Carnegie Institution funding supported their joint research endeavors, and Edith Clements was named a field assistant by the Carnegie Institution.

Edith Clements served as instructor in botany for the Alpine Laboratory, and Frederic as director.

Edith Clements was a botanical artist and illustrated a number of their joint publications, such as Rocky Mountain Flowers and Flowers of Coast and Sierra, as well as solo publications by Frederic, including Plant Succession, Adaptation and Origin in the Plant World: The Role of Environment in Evolution, and Dynamics of Vegetation.

Indeed, Frederic himself was of the opinion that Edith Clements would have been ranked among the world's top ecologists had she spent less time assisting his career.

Edith Clements continued to work on their joint manuscripts and write articles until her death in La Jolla in 1971.

Edith Clements was nominated for the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 2012.