Winifred Mary Curtis was a British-born Australian botanist, author and a pioneer researcher in plant embryology and cytology who played a prominent role in the department of botany at the University of Tasmania, where the main plant science laboratory is named in her honour.
11 Facts About Winifred Curtis
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Winifred Curtis was a gifted student, and studied science at University College, London from 1924, winning various awards and scholarships.
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Winifred Curtis graduated in 1927 and completed an honours degree in Botany the following year for research on Spartinia townsendii, and Taraxacum.
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Winifred Curtis later joined the Department of Biology at the University of Tasmania and took part in the creation of the Department of Botany there in 1945.
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In 1944 Winifred Curtis published Variations in Pultenaea juniperina, the first record of polyploidy in an Australian native plant.
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Winifred Curtis's doctoral thesis was titled Studies in Experimental Taxonomy and Variation in Certain Tasmanian Plants which was a pioneering work in cytology and polyploidy.
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Winifred Curtis was appointed University of Tasmania Senior Lecturer in Botany in 1951 and Reader in Botany in 1956, the most senior position held by a woman at the university at that time.
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Winifred Curtis acted as Head of the Department on several occasions.
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Winifred Curtis submitted her published works to the University of London for a Doctor of Science degree in 1967 which was conferred in 1968.
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Winifred Curtis's mother died in 1962 and she nursed her father at home until his death in 1967.
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Dr Winifred Curtis retired from the Department of Botany in 1966 and was appointed Honorary Research Fellow; she was made an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Plant Science in 1998.