Mireya Dorotea Correa Arroyo (February 6, 1940 November 22, 2022) was a Panamanian

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and plant taxonomist known for her work with the flora of

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Career

Correa graduated from the

University of Panama The University of Panama ( es, Universidad de Panamá) was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 students distributed in 228 b ...

with a degree in biology and chemistry in 1963. She received a master's degree in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

in 1967. Her area of expertise was the systematic study of vascular plants with emphasis of the flora of Panama. She was a professor at the University of Panama and pioneered formal botanical studies in Panama. She became a scientific collaborator at the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, es, Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understa ...

in 1987. She was the Director of the Herbarium at the University of Panama, a research and teaching facility of the Natural Science Faculty from the time of its founding in 1968. The collection contains more than seventy thousand specimens. It has been part of the Network of Mesoamerican and Caribbean Herbaria since 1995. She created an online database that digitized 12,000 of the specimens and records of the herbarium.

Works

Literature

* * * * * *

Awards

* 2008 - Medal José Cuatrecasas for Excellence in Tropical Botany. * 2008 - Emeritus Scientist of the Year offered by the Asociacion para el avance de la Ciencia (APANAC).

References

External links

* (Archived; in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Correa, Mireya 1940 births 2022 deaths Women botanists Panamanian women scientists Panamanian women writers University of Panama alumni Duke University alumni Smithsonian Institution people 20th-century botanists 21st-century botanists 20th-century non-fiction writers 21st-century non-fiction writers 20th-century Panamanian women writers 20th-century Panamanian writers 21st-century Panamanian women writers 21st-century Panamanian writers