14 Facts About Jean Brenchley

Jean E Brenchley was an American microbiologist and a professor at the Pennsylvania State University and Purdue University.

Jean Elnora Brenchley was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania, as the daughter of J Edward Brenchley and Elizabeth Jefferson Brenchley.

Jean Brenchley earned her bachelor's degree in biology at Mansfield University in 1965.

Jean Brenchley pursued further studies in marine microbiology at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, where she earned her master's degree in 1967.

Jean Brenchley returned to academia in 1984, as the founding Director of the Penn State Biotechnology Institute.

Jean Brenchley built the institute's programming and did fundraising to create laboratories.

Jean Brenchley's research involved the genetics of psychrophilic microbes, including microbes retrieved from Antarctic and Greenland ice core samples.

Jean Brenchley's work had practical industrial applications, but was considered useful in theories about extraterrestrial life.

In 1986, Jean Brenchley was elected president of the American Society for Microbiology.

Jean Brenchley was recipient of the Waksman Award for Outstanding Contributions in Microbiology in 1985 from the Theobald Smith Society, and of American Society for Microbiology's Alice Evans Award in 1996, for her work encouraging women in the field.

Jean Brenchley was a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society for Industrial Microbiology.

TheJean Brenchley Endowment, established by Jean Brenchley in her last year, supports programming on WPSU-FM, the public radio station at Penn State.

Jean Brenchley died from cancer in 2019, aged 75 years, in State College, Pennsylvania.

The Jean Brenchley Fund, established in her memory at the Centre Foundation, supports environmental and educational projects in central Pennsylvania, including the Women Anglers Support Fund, because she was active in the Central Pennsylvania Women Anglers.