Graciela Calderón Díaz Barriga (14 July 1931 – 2 January 2022) was a Mexican botanist and professor who was known for her work on neotropical flora.

Education and career

She graduated in biology from the

Instituto Politécnico Nacional The National Polytechnic Institute (), abbreviated IPN, is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 171,581 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is the second-best university in Mexico in the techni ...

in 1957, with the thesis "Vegetation of the San Luis Potosí Valley". She was recognized as a tenured researcher by the

Sistema Nacional de Investigadores Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (National System of Researchers) or SNI is a governmental agency established in Mexico in 1984 to promote both the quantity and quality of research in Mexico, especially in the sciences. In the 1980s, the countr ...

. She has worked at the Mexican Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, at the Institute of Ecology, A.C. (INECOL), at the Regional Center of the Bajío (in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán), in addition to the National School of Biological Sciences. She was married to

Jerzy Rzedowski Jerzy Rzedowski Rotter (27 December 1926 – March 2023) was a Polish-born Mexican botanist, whose focus was on Mexican floristics, taxonomy, and ecology. Early life and education Rzedowski was born in Lwów, Poland (now in Ukraine) to Arnold a ...

, a botanical researcher and naturalized Mexican. Graciela and her husband were honored in 1994 with an edited book detailing their impact on the study of botany in Mexico.

Selected publications

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Honors and awards

Calderón received an honorary degree in 2010 from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana. The flowering plant '' Megacorax gracielanus'' is named in honor of Calderón's contribution to botany.

References

1931 births 2022 deaths Mexican botanists Women botanists Instituto Politécnico Nacional alumni {{Mexico-botanist-stub