Sophie Charlotte Ducker

Sophie Charlotte Ducker AM (9 April 1909 – 20 May 2004) was a German-born Australian botanist.^[1] She was awarded the Mueller Medal in 1996.

Early life and education[]

She was born Sophie Charlotte von Klemperer^[2] in Dresden. She studied at the Cheltenham Ladies' College in England. She began the study of botany at the University of Geneva and the University of Stuttgart. She stopped her studies in 1931 when she married Johann Friedrich Ducker. The family left Germany at the outbreak of hostilities and moved to Tehran, Persia. In 1941, they were forced to move again and settled in Australia.

Career[]

Ducker worked as a research assistant for Dr. Ethel Irene McLennan of the botany school at the University of Melbourne. She completed a BSc there in 1952. In 1957, she became a botany lecturer at the university and, in 1961, a senior lecturer. She specialized in marine botany, especially algae. She retired in 1974 but continued to conduct research, present papers and lecture. After her retirement, she collaborated with Professor Bruce Knox at the University of Melbourne on pollination, particularly that of seagrasses.^[2] Ducker received a DSc from the University of Melbourne in 1978.^[1] She also published biographies of early Australian botanists.^[2] The standard author abbreviation Ducker is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[3]

Ducker was a founding member of the Australasian Society for Phycology and Aquatic Botany.^[4]

Awards[]

In 1996 she received the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science's Mueller Medal.^[2] In 1993, Ducker was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne.^[1] She was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to recording the history of botany in Australia, to education and to science, particularly in the field of marine botany".^[5]

Death[]

Ducker died in Melbourne at the age of 95.^[1]

References[]

Further reading[]

Ducker, Sophie. The contented botanist: letters of W.H. Harvey about Australia and the Pacific. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1984. ISBN 9780522843415

Ducker, Sophie C. 'Harvey, William Henry (1811–1866)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harvey-william-henry-3732/text5867, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 25 August 2017

External links[]

• "Sophie Ducker: Distinguished Botanist and Library Benefactor" (PDF). University of Melbourne Library Journal. 2004.
• Sophie Ducker, University of Melbourne Archives
• Sophie Ducker Botany Collection, Special Collections, University of Melbourne Library