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Rhoda Williams Benham

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Rhoda Williams Benham
BornDecember 5th 1894
Cedarhurst, New York, United States
DiedJanuary 17th 1957
NationalityUnited States
Alma materBarnard College
Scientific career
Fieldsmycology; botany

Rhoda Williams Benham (born 1894) is an American mycologist, a pioneer of the field of medical mycology.[1]

Education and career

Rhoda Williams Benham graduated in 1917 with B.S. in Botany from Barnard College and in 1919 with M.S. in Biology from the Columbia University. She graduated in 1931 with Ph.D. in botany from Columbia University with the thesis "Certain Monilias Parasitic on Man, their Identification by Morphology and by Aggluti.[1]

Benham published widely on fungal taxonomy, pathogenicity, and nutrition. At Columbia University, she directed the first medical mycology research lab in the country, and taught the nation's first medical mycology course in 1935.[1] She helped teach Elizabeth Lee Hazen mycology.[2]

Awards and honors

The Medical Mycological Society of the Americas awards an annual prize for outstanding contributions to the field of medical mycology. [3] The fungusTrichophyton benhamiae was named in her honor.

References

  1. ^ a b c Silva, Margarita; Hazen, Elizabeth L. (1957). "Rhoda Williams Benham: 1894-1957". Mycologia. 49 (4): 596–603. doi:10.1080/00275514.1957.12024672. JSTOR 3756162.
  2. ^ "Hazen, Elizabeth Lee and Rachel Fuller Brown | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  3. ^ "Rhoda Benham Awardees". Medical Mycological Society of the Americas. 1 June 2020.