Victoria Elizabeth Foe (born 1945) is an American

developmental biologist Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and differentiation of stem c ...

, and Research Professor at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

's Center for Cell Dynamics. She is known for her work on the development of embryos.

Early life and education

As a child, Foe moved around a lot, living in the United States, Mexico, and England. Foe has a B.S. from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

(1966). She then earned a Ph.D. from

, where she started working with Hugh Forrest and then finished at the

, where she studied with Charles Laird. Her postdoctoral work was with

Bruce Alberts Bruce Michael Alberts (born April 14, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American biochemist and the Chancellor’s Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education, Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisc ...

at the University of California in San Francisco.

Career

Foe joined the zoology department at the University of Washington in 1991. Foe is a founding member of the Center of Cell Dynamics at

Friday Harbor Laboratories Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL), is a marine biology field station of the University of Washington, located in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington, United States. Friday Harbor Labs is known for its intensive summer classes offered to c ...

, within the

. She has not taught or gone down the traditional path of mentoring young scientists, not wanting to get caught up in administrative duties as a professor. Nor has she let technicians or students work for her in research. As of 2021, Foe is professor emeritus at the University of Washington.

Research

Foe works with frogs, mosquitoes, fruit flies, and fish to examine the growth and patterning of embryos. She describes her work as largely observational, but utilizes recent scientific techniques to explore her observations of the natural world. Her work on ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many speci ...

'' was supported by an independent supporting grant, by the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. Foe is best known for her research defining how groups of cells in embryos divide at different rates and thereby develop into different body parts. She has also worked on the formation of furrows during development of cells, through both visual observations and modelling research.

Selected publications

* * * *

Awards

In 1990, Foe was named a Guggenheim fellow. In 1993, at the age of 34, Foe won a McArthur Genius Grant for her work in cell and developmental biology.

Activism

Foe is an activist and scientist. She was involved in the

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such is ...

, the

anti-Vietnam War movement Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social mov ...

, and the anti-Persian Gulf War movement. As a student at the University of Texas in 1968, she worked to connect students with doctors willing to prescribe contraceptives to students and to perform abortions. She took a break from her schooling at the University of Texas at Austin to take a position as political aide. While acting as a political aid, she helped overturn the anti-abortion legislation in the state of Texas.

Personal life

She was married Michael Dennis, a neurophysiologist. They later divorced.

References

External links

"Common Myths About the Canadian Health Care System Exposed"
Victoria Foe, ''The Rag Blog'', August 5, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Foe, Victoria 1945 births 20th-century American biologists University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni University of Washington alumni MacArthur Fellows Living people American women biologists Developmental biologists 21st-century American biologists Place of birth missing (living people) University of Washington faculty Date of birth missing (living people) American women academics 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists