Lillian Segal Root (formerly Kopeloff), best known as Lillian Segal, was an explorer known for her participation in
William Beebe
Charles William Beebe ( ; July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New York Zoological S ...
's 1925 ''Arcturus'' expedition where she examined how light was produced by deep sea fish.
Biography
Segal was from Boston, and married Nicholas Kopeloff
in Boston on July 31, 1917. She worked with him at the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station in New Orleans where their research centered on sugars. This research determined the factors causing sugar to breakdown and provided methods to prevent the undesired breakdown of sugars.
She graduated from
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
in 1922,
with a B.A
and an MA.
and was appointed director of the department of biological chemistry at the Psychiatric Institute of the New York State Hospital the same year. Her writings from this era include publications in ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'' where she wrote on cancer and drug addiction.
Arcturus expedition
In 1925 Segal became a member of the Arcturus expedition that was led by William Beebe where her official title was "Associate in charge of special problems". She joined the ship in Norfolk, Virginia. Segal's role was to determine how the light is produced by the fish, and her plan was to use a
spectroscope
An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify mate ...
but the light produced by the fish was too dim to make this work, though they tried on dead fish that were collected during the expedition. To conduct her work on the ship, Segal had to devise her own chemical apparatus to collect fluids from the fish Photos from during the expedition present Segal working on deck and in the lab. The ship returned to land in August 1925.
In interviews given at the end of the expedition, Beebe credited the four women on the ship, Segal along with
Ruth Rose
Ruth Rose (January 16, 1896 – June 8, 1978) was a writer who worked on several films in the 1930s and the 1940s, most famously the original 1933 classic ''King Kong''.
Early life
Rose was born on January 16, 1896 to a playwright, Edwa ...
,
Marie Poland Fish
Marie "Bobbie" Dennis Poland Fish (May 22, 1900 – February 2, 1989) was an American oceanography, oceanographer and Marine biology, marine biologist known for her bioacoustics research and the finding of eel eggs in the Sargasso Sea. Her resear ...
,
Helen Tee-Van, for his success. In 1928,
William K. Gregory published the results of their work on the Arcturus expedition, with an acknowledgement to Segal's contribution on the project.
Later life
Segal died on September 8, 1991.
Selected publications
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Segal, Lillian
1991 deaths
American women microbiologists
Female explorers
Barnard College alumni
Women chemists