Helen Margaret Gilkey

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Helen Margaret Gilkey
Born6 March 1886 Edit this on Wikidata
Montesano Edit this on Wikidata
Died7 August 1972 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 86)
Alma mater
Occupation
Academic career
Author abbrev. (botany)Gilkey

Helen Margaret Gilkey (1886–1972) was an American mycologist and botanist, as well as a botanical illustrator and watercolor artist[1][2] She was born on March 6, 1886, in Montesano, Washington, and moved to Corvallis, Oregon, with her family in 1903.[2] She died in 1972 at the age of 86.[3]

Education[edit]

Gilkey received both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) for her studies in botany (including mycology) and botanical illustration. She continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1915 she became the first woman[2][4] to receive a Ph.D. in botany there. Gilkey's doctoral dissertation focused on the taxonomy of North American truffles (order Tuberales),[5] and her published dissertation remains an important contribution to the study of truffle taxonomy in North America.[6]

Career[edit]

After completing her doctoral studies, Gilkey worked as a scientific illustrator.[3] She contributed original illustrations to Willis Linn Jepson's Manual of Flowering Plants of California.[2][7] In 1918, Gilkey secured a position as the herbarium curator at the Oregon Agricultural College.[1] Gilkey was best known for her extensive studies on truffles, but she also conducted research on vascular plants. Gilkey described many species of truffles from the United States as well as a few from Argentina and Australia.[8][9] Her 1939 monograph[10] is the most comprehensive work[citation needed] on Tuberales of North America. The standard author abbreviation Gilkey is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[11]. Over the course of her academic career, Gilkey published many books and over 40 scientific articles, with the last book being her Handbook of Northwestern Plants, published in 1967.[6]

Awards and honors[edit]

In 1952, Gilkey received the "Outstanding Scientist" award from the Oregon Academy of Science, and she won the same award from the Northwest Scientific Association in 1969.[2] In 2006, the truffle genus Gilkeya was named in her honor.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Trappe, James M. (1975). "Helen Margaret Gilkey (1886-1972)". Mycologia. 67 (2): 207–213. doi:10.1080/00275514.1975.12019744. JSTOR 3758414. PMID 1090819.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Helen Gilkey (1886-1972)". oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  3. ^ a b "Archives West: Helen M. Gilkey Papers, 1910-1974". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  4. ^ Johnston, La Rea Dennis; Love, Rhoda (April 1996). "Helen Gilkey (1886-1972)" (PDF). Oregon Flora Newsletter. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  5. ^ Gilkey, Helen M. (1916). "A revision of the Tuberales of California". University of California Publications in Botany. 6: 275–356.
  6. ^ a b "Helen Gilkey (1886-1972)". oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  7. ^ Jepson, Willis Linn (1909). A flora of California. LuEsther T. Mertz Library New York Botanical Garden. San Francisco, Calif., Cunningham, Curtis & Welch.
  8. ^ Gilkey, Helen (1963). "General notes on the Tuberales, with a new species of Tuber from Australia". Advancing Frontiers in Plant Science. 4: 11–16.
  9. ^ Gilkey, Helen (1961). "New Species and Revisions in the Order Tuberales". Mycologia. 53 (3): 215–220. doi:10.2307/3756268. JSTOR 3756268.
  10. ^ Helen, Gilkey (1939). Tuberales of North America. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State College. pp. 1–63.
  11. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Gilkey.
  12. ^ Smith, Matthew; Trappe JM; Rizzo DM (2006). "Genea, Genabea and Gilkeya gen. nov.: ascomata and ectomycorrhiza formation in a Quercus woodland". Mycologia. 98 (5): 699–716. doi:10.3852/mycologia.98.5.699. PMID 17256574.
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