Ellen Clark
Ellen Clark | |
|---|---|
 Ellen Clark, c.1939 | |
| Born | 25 March 1915 Geraldton, Western Australia |
| Died | 2 May 1988 (aged 73) Santa Clara, California |
| Spouse | Alex Guba |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Naturalism, carcinology, virology, entomology |
Ellen Clark (1915–1988) was an Australian carcinologist and naturalist, whose work focused on crustaceans and ants[1][2][3] Clark studied, named, described and published many of the Australian freshwater crayfish species such as Cherax Destructor.[4][5] By 1939, she was reported to have identified more than half the known species of Australian crayfish.[6][7][8][9] She conducted research about blood groups in crustaceans and made a significant contribution to the study of crayfish genera.[10][11][12] She was the first woman to publish in the Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria.[4]
Ellen Clark's crayfish, Euastacus clarkae, was named after Clark in recognition of her pioneering parastacid studies.[13] Clark's work has had a lasting legacy and is still being debated in scientific papers.[14]
Early life
[edit]Clark was born in Geraldton, Western Australia on 25 March 1915, to Scottish-born parents John and Maggie Clark.[4] John Clark, a car builder, was a renown entomologist and authority on Australian ants, despite having no formal qualifications.[15][16]
In 1926, Ellen Clark moved to with her family to Melbourne following her father's appointment as an entomologist at the National Museum of Australia.[16]
Scientific work
[edit]In 1936, Clark published The Freshwater and Land Crayfish of Australia, becoming the first woman to publish in the Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria.[16]
In 1940, Clark resigned from Melbourne Museum after failing to secure a permanent position, and commenced as a secretary in the virology department of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI).[15] Despite being employed in a clerical role, Clark continued studying crustacea, including its application to serology and immunology, as well as influenza.[16] At WEHI, Clark also worked with Australian virologist and future Nobel Laureate Sir Macfarlane Burnet.[17] Clark co-authored several papers at WEHI, including Influenza in 1942 with Burnet.[16]
Clark left the WEHI in 1945 to continue studying entomology with her father.[15] The pair worked from their home in Box Hill, and later from Mooroolbark, and they specialised in the physiology of bull ants. In 1947 she tested the reaction of ants to air travel and travelled with 4,500 ants on a three week, return, trip to the United States, In 1950 she spent a year studying at Rutgers University, on a Rockefeller grant, where she met and married Alex Guba and chose to relocate to America.[4]
Death
[edit]Clark died on 2 May 1988 in Santa Clara, California.[4]
External links
[edit]- Biography of Ellen Clark at the Australian Dictionary of Biography
- F. M. Burnet and E. Clark, 1942, Influenza: A survey of the last 50 years in the light of modern work on the virus of epidemic influenza, Macmillan, Melbourne
References
[edit]- ↑ "Ants Bigger Menace Than Rabbits to Aust.?". Midlands Advocate. Vol. 31, no. 1631. Western Australia. 22 August 1947. p. 1 (Modern Weekly News Magazine). Retrieved 8 March 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "Todayt: Science". The Daily Telegraph. Vol. VIII, no. 38. New South Wales, Australia. 3 August 1947. p. 34. Retrieved 8 March 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "Clark, Ellen (1915-1988)", Trove, 2009, retrieved 8 March 2021
- 1 2 3 4 5 Carey, Jane. "Clark, Ellen (1915-1988)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
- ↑ "Ballarat Anglers in New Role". Weekly Times. No. 3767. Victoria, Australia. 30 August 1941. p. 39. Retrieved 8 March 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "What Women are Doing". The Australian Women's Weekly. 17 June 1939. p. 46. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ↑ "Teach a lesson in geography". The Herald. 17 May 1941.
- ↑ "Some Curious Yabbies —"Crabs and Potholes"". The Australasian. Vol. CXLV, no. 4, 686. Victoria, Australia. 29 October 1938. p. 47. Retrieved 8 March 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "Crayfish Cause Irrigation Channel Havoc". The Riverine Herald. No. 21, 355. New South Wales, Australia. 20 June 1946. p. 4. Retrieved 8 March 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "Blood- Grouping Ants and Crayfish". Advocate. 26 January 1949. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ↑ Clark, Ellen (1938), Tasmanian Parastacidae, retrieved 8 March 2021
- ↑ Clark, Ellen (1936). "The freshwater and land crayfishes of Australia". Memoirs of the National Museum, Melbourne. 10.
- ↑ "Euastacus clarkae: McCormack, R.B." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015. doi:10.2305/iucn.uk.2015-4.rlts.t153666a79360699.en.
- ↑ Hamr, P (1992), A revision of the Tasmanian freshwater crayfish genus Astacopsis Huxley (Decapoda: Parastacidae), retrieved 8 March 2021
- 1 2 3 Mulhern, Terry (19 December 2024). "Lobster Tales - Ellen Clark". FortySouth Tasmania. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - 1 2 3 4 5 Carey, Jane, "Ellen Clark (1915–1988)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 22 August 2026
- ↑ "Clark, Ellen - Person". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. 5 January 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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