Dame Patricia Rose Bergquist (née Smyth, 10 March 1933 – 9 September 2009) was a New Zealand zoologist who specialised in

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having i ...

and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. At the time of her death, she was professor emerita of zoology and honorary professor of anatomy with radiology at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

Early life, family and education

Born Patricia Rose Smyth in the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

suburb of Devonport on 10 March 1933, Bergquist was the daughter of William Smyth, an electrician, and Bertha Ellen ( Penny) Smyth, a homemaker. She had a younger brother Norman and a sister Catherine. She was educated at Devonport Primary School, and then

Takapuna Grammar School Takapuna Grammar School is a state coeducational secondary school located in the suburb of Belmont on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Established in 1927, the school mainly serves the eponymous suburb of Takapuna and the entire Devo ...

where she was dux in her final year. She then began studying at Auckland University College in 1950, graduating MSc with first-class honours in botany in 1956; the title of her master's thesis was ''Contributions to the study of the loxsomaceae''. After completing a second MSc equivalent in zoology, she undertook doctoral studies at Auckland, obtaining her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

, supervised by

William Roy McGregor William Roy McGregor (8 July 1894 – 1 June 1977) was a New Zealand zoologist and conservationist who was successful in halting forestry in the Waipoua forest and establishing the forest as a protected sanctuary. Academic career McGregor was b ...

and John Morton, on the taxonomy of the

Porifera Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

in 1961. Bergquist was the first person to earn a doctoral degree from the University of Auckland. In 1958, she married Peter Bergquist, a noted molecular biologist, and the couple went on to have one daughter.

Academic and research career

Following her doctorate, Patricia Bergquist studied overseas, initially at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

where she broadened her systematic expertise, before returning to New Zealand and becoming an educator and researcher at the

on matters related to anatomy, taxonomy and zoology, with particular interest in the

marine sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

. She felt a stable framework of higher level classification which would permit recognition of generic relationships and facilitate descriptions of new species was missing. When Bergquist received a Personal Chair at the University of Auckland, she was the first woman at that university to do so. She co-authored (with Mary E. Sinclair) ''The Morphology and Behaviour of Larvae of Some Intertidal Sponges'' for the ''New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research'', which was published on 20 October 1967. In 1979, Bergquist was conferred the degree of

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

by the University of Auckland, on the basis on 28 submitted publications.

Honours and awards

Bergquist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1982, and in 1989 she was awarded the

Hector Memorial Medal The Hector Medal, formerly known as the Hector Memorial Medal, is a science award given by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in memory of Sir James Hector to researchers working in New Zealand. It is awarded annually in rotation for different science ...

by the Royal Society of New Zealand. In the 1994 New Year Honours, she was appointed a

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

, for services to science. Her husband, Peter Bergquist, was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have re ...

, for services to science, in the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours.

Legacy

Numerous sponges have been named in her honour, e.g, '' Xestospongia bergquistia'' Fromont, 1991, ''

Tethya bergquistae ''Tethya bergquistae'' is a species of sea sponge belonging to the family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of ...

'' Hooper, 1994, ''

Acarnus bergquistae ''Acarnus'' is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Acarnidae. The genus has almost cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world ...

'' Van Soest, Hooper & Hiemstra, 1991, ''

Plakortis bergquistae ''Plakortis bergquistae'' is a species of marine sponge in the order Homosclerophorida, first described in 2011 by Guilherme Muricy. The species epithet, ''bergquistae'', honours Patricia Bergquist. Distribution The holotype was collected nea ...

'' Muricy, 2011, and '' Phyllospongia bergquistae'' Wahab & Fromont, 2020. Bergquist featured as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's " 150 women in 150 words" project in 2017.

Death

Patricia Bergquist died of

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...

in Auckland on 9 September 2009, aged 76.

References