Biographical entry
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Bright Sparcs
Biographical entry
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Ducker, Sophie Charlotte (1909 - 2004)AM |
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| Botanist | ||
| Born: 9 April 1909 Dresden, Germany. Died: 20 May 2004 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. | ||
| Sophie Charlotte Ducker was a renowned botanist and Australian botanical historian. Born in Germany, Ducker fled many war zones to eventually settle in Australia around 1941. She joined the University of Melbourne’s Botany Department as a Technical Assistant in 1944, retiring as a senior lecturer in Botany in 1974. She was particularly interested in phycology - the study of seaweed, and studying the many 18th and 19th century explorers, botanists and artists who first described Australian. Ducker has an annual postgraduate scholarship endowed in her name. |
Career Highlights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alternative Names: Sophie Charlotte Klemperer Edle von Klemenau (maiden name) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ducker began her botanical studies at the Universities of Geneva and Stuttgart, but stopped in 1931 when she married Dr Johann Friedrich Ducker, executive officer of Germany’s Chamber of Commerce. Soon afterwards she had her only child, a son. Due to the out-beak of war, Ducker and her family were forced to leave Germany and in 1938 they settled in Tehran, Persia (now Iran). She became trapped in Rhodesia for a year in 1939 as a result of World War II and with much grit and determination, eventually made her way back to Tehran to meet up with her family. Then in 1941, war once again forced the Duckers to flee their home and they ended up in Australia. Now aged 35, Ducker was still determined to work in the field of botany. In 1944 she worked as a research assistant for Dr Ethel McLennan at The University of Melbourne’s botany school, studying the relatively new field of the anti-biotic properties of fungi and soil microorganisms. Ducker also completed (part-time) her BSc and Masters degrees during this time. She went on to specialize in marine botany, especially algae, and initiated the 1969 and 1973 studies of Port Phillip Bay. Ducker also became a competent lecturer, supervisor and historian. After her ‘official’ retirement in 1974, Sophie Ducker continued her research which expanded to include the study of flowering marine plants, and researching the histories of the earliest recorders of Australia’s flora, especially the seaweeds. Sophie Ducker donated around 1200 books on botany, including one written by St Augustine in 1466, to the University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library. Chronology
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Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007 Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre Disclaimer, Copyright and Privacy Policy Submit any comments, questions, corrections and additions Prepared by: Acknowledgements Updated: 26 February 2007 http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000374b.htm |