Friday, June 8, 2018

Women who changed the world: Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)



"Gwendolyn Brooks, in full Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, (born June 7, 1917, Topeka, Kan., U.S.—died Dec. 3, 2000, Chicago, Ill.), American poet whose works deal with the everyday life of urban blacks. She was the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950), and in 1968 she was named the poet laureate of Illinois.
Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in Chicago in 1936. Her early verses appeared in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper written primarily for that city’s African American community. Her first published collection, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), reveals her talent for making the ordinary life of her neighbours extraordinary. Annie Allen (1949), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, is a loosely connected series of poems related to an African American girl’s growing up in Chicago. The same theme was used for Brooks’s novel Maud Martha (1953)."

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Women who changed the world: Greta Stevenson






Greta Stevenson [Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa - C-17974]
GRETA STEVENSON [ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NEW ZEALAND, TE "PUNA MATAURANGA O AOTEAROA – C-17974]
"New Zealanders were introduced to the native mushrooms of New Zealand in a series of five papers published between 1962 and 1964. The author was Greta Stevenson who began collecting mushrooms in the late 1940s and through the 1950s culminating in her going to Kew to work in the herbarium and prepare a manuscript for publication. ‘The Agaricales of New Zealand’ series was published in Kew Bulletin with the Nuffield Foundation funding the printing of the coloured plates. Marie Taylor told me that Greta was terribly disappointed in the colour reproduction of her watercolours.
In her biography, Kay McFarlane says that Greta went to Wellington in 1970 where she worked for ten years as an unpaid research officer in the Botany Department at Victoria University of Wellington. She also says that from 1980 to 1981 Greta worked at the University of Canterbury’s Botany Department where, while undertaking research, she conducted a number of workshops and study courses on larger fungi. This is not totally correct. In her obituary of Greta, Marie Taylor noted that “Her characteristic acerbic comment leaves us in no doubt of her position on controversial topics”.  A falling out with the Botany Department in 1980 saw Greta move to the Geology department. In 1981 I attended an extension course on identifying larger fungi run by Greta at Victoria University. Greta used the notes she produced for this course for her book Field Guide to Fungi (1982) which was reprinted after her death as New Zealand Fungi: an Illustrated Guide (1994). Unfortunately, Greta fell out with the Geology Department which resulted in her move to Christchurch and then to England where she died in 1991."

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Women who changed the world: Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992)



"Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was a computer pioneer and naval officer. She received a master’s degree (1930) and a Ph.D. (1934) in mathematics from Yale. One of the first three modern “programmers,” Hopper is best known for her trailblazing contributions to the development of computer languages. Known as irreverent, sharp-tongued, and brilliant, she enjoyed long and influential careers in both the U.S. Navy and the private sector."

https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service