Olga Herrera-MacBryde (1937–2007) was an

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians ( es, ecuatorianos) are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collect ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 international conservationist.

Early life

Olga Sabina Herrera Carvajal was born in 1937 in

Guayaquil , motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Ecuador#South America , pushpin_re ...

, Ecuador. She studied at the Colegio Normal Rita Lecumberry, following which she taught Spanish, Ecuadorian history and natural sciences in primary and high school. In 1963, she obtained a secondary school teaching certificate from the

University of Guayaquil The University of Guayaquil (Spanish: ''Universidad de Guayaquil''), known colloquially as the ''Estatal'' (i.e., "the State niversity), is a public university in Guayaquil, Guayas Province, Ecuador. Estatal was founded in 1883. It is the old ...

, and the following year, an undergraduate degree in botany. She then studied at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

and

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

, from which she received a master's degree in biology. Herrera met her husband, Bruce MacBryde, in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Career

Herrera-MacBryde worked at the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million spe ...

on taxonomy, before joining the

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador The Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) (English: ''Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador'') is a Pontifical Catholic university founded in 1946 in Quito, Ecuador. History The university opened in the fall of 1946, with Carlos ...

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

, where she chaired the biology department between 1970–72. She co-founded a herbarium at the university, depositing nearly 1500 collections. From 1972–75, she moved to Canada, where she participated in the first comprehensive coverage of the wild plants of British Columbia. She also co-authored a book on Central American weeds. In 1976, Herrera-MacBryde represented Ecuador at the first conference of the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

. She worked at the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

in Washington, DC, and the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

's US arm. She also worked at the education programme of the

Charles Darwin Research Station Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

in the Galapagos Islands. Herrera-MacBryde joined the Smithsonian's botany department as an editor and scientific coordinator, specialising in the botany of the region from Mexico through South America. She was a co-author of the book ''Centres of Plant Diversity''. She ran environmental training courses and monitored the Smithsonian's biodiversity programme between 1995–2004. She edited a book on the Beni Biosphere Reserve in Bolivia, and reported on the Mayan forests of Mexico and Central America.

Later life

Herrera-MacBryde died in

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

, from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

, on April 22, 2007.

Honors

Two plant species of Ecuador are named in her honour, as well as the ''Psychotria olgae'', a tree species in the

Chagres National Park The Chagres National Park is a nature park and protected area created in 1986 located between the Province of Panama and Colon, in the Eastern sector of the Panama Canal with a total surface area of . The park contains tropical rain forests a ...

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 ...

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera-MacBryde, Olga American conservationists Ecuadorian biologists Ecuadorian women scientists 1937 births 2007 deaths American women botanists Missouri Botanical Garden people People from Guayaquil Saint Louis University alumni 20th-century American botanists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women