Esther Fussell Byrnes (1867–1946) was an American biologist and science teacher. She was one of the first women copepodologists—scientists who study

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s. She was a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, as well as the American Society of Naturalists.

Life

Byrnes was born in

Overbrook, Philadelphia Overbrook is a neighborhood northwest of West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The area's housing ranges from large, old homes to rowhouses to 3- and 4-story apartment buildings. Physical setting The name Overbrook ...

in 1867. She graduated from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

with a B.A. in 1891. For the next two years she worked in the biology department at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

as an assistant. She then returned to Bryn Mawr College and obtained a master's degree in 1894, followed by a doctorate in 1898, whilst working in the college's biology department. She left and went to teach in New York at the

Girls High School Girls High School is a historically and architecturally notable public secondary school building located at 475 Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was built in 1886.''Brooklyn: a soup-to-nuts g ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in their Department of Physiology and Biology until her retirement from teaching in 1932. During this time, she was a member of the New York Science Teachers Association. This was only interrupted from 1926 to 1927, when she took a year off to tutor the princesses of the Japanese royal family at

Tsuda College is a private women's university based at Kodaira, Tokyo. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher educational institutions for women in Japan, contributing to the advancement of women in society for more than a century. History The u ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. In 1940, she became director of Mount Desert Biological Laboratory, Maine. Her research was focused on

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

and her work at Bryn Mawr focused on the study of limb regeneration in amphibians as well as studying

cyclops In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...

, a freshwater species of crustacean. She died in Maine while on vacation at the age of 79.

Memberships

* New York State Science Teachers' Association * North Central Community League of Philadelphia * Society of Naturalists * Society of Zoologists * Marine Biological Association * Genetic Association

Works

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrnes, Esther 1867 births 1946 deaths Science teachers American marine biologists Women marine biologists American carcinologists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists