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Diatometer
Limnologist Ruth Patrick was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1909. As a child she
learned to appreciate nature, especially plants, after numerous trips to the
countryside with her family. Later she developed an interest in the microscopic
organisms in water. In 1929, she received her BS degree from Coker College in
South Carolina. She received her MS degree from the University of Virginia two
years later.
Patrick served as a research assistant at Coker College and Temple University
before returning to Virginia to earn her PhD in botany in 1934. She went on to
become an assistant curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia
before being promoted to chair of the Limnology Department and curator of
Limnology.
Patrick is well-known as a biologist responsible for raising ecological
awareness in our society. Her efforts in the field of limnology, the study of
freshwater ecosystems, led to the methods by which the environmental health of
rivers and streams is evaluated today. Her particular expertise is diatoms,
single-celled algae that are a basic food source for organisms living in fresh
water. In order to accurately determine the presence of pollution in fresh
water, Patrick invented the diatometer, a device that accurately determines the
presence of pollution in fresh water.
In the early 1950s, Patrick was assigned by the Atomic Energy Commission to
collect baseline data on the water quality of the Savannah River, prior to the
opening of the Savannah River Plant. With a team of scientists from the
Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, she was the first to diagnose the health of a
river or stream by analyzing plant life and animal species. Her early studies
contributed significantly to the developing field of ecology, and established
for the first time a set of aquatic indices that could be used to describe the
health of water systems and the impact of industrialization. Her work has been
modeled by ecologists worldwide.
Patrick was the first woman elected chair of the board of the Academy of
Natural Sciences. She taught limnology and botany at the University of
Pennsylvania for more than thirty-five years and wrote a number of books on the
environment, including Rivers of the United States, Power So Great, and Colors
of Tomorrow. She was a member of President Johnson's Science Advisory Committee
on Algeal Blooms in 1966; she was chairman of the Panel of Pollution Control of
the National Academy of Sciences from 1973-75; and she was a member of President
Reagan's Peer Review Committee on Acid Rain.
Patrick was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Clinton, the
Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America, and 25 honorary
degrees. The University of South Carolina's Ruth Patrick Science Education
Center is also named in her honor.
[November 2002]
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