Esther Byrnes Explained

Esther Byrnes
Birth Date:1867
Birth Place:Overbrook, Pennsylvania
Death Date:1946
Death Place:Maine
Citizenship:American
Fields:Biology
Thesis1 Title:and
Thesis2 Title:)-->
Thesis1 Url:and
Thesis2 Url:)-->
Thesis1 Year:and
Thesis2 Year:)-->
Doctoral Advisors:)-->
Awards:Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences
Spouses:)-->
Partners:)-->

Esther Fussell Byrnes (1867–1946) was an American biologist and science teacher. She was one of the first women copepodologists—scientists who study copepods.[1] She was a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, as well as the American Society of Naturalists.

Life

Byrnes was born in Overbrook, Philadelphia in 1867. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in 1891. For the next two years she worked in the biology department at Vassar College as an assistant. She then returned to Bryn Mawr College and obtained a master's degree in 1894, followed by a doctorate in 1898, whilst working in the college's biology department.[2]

She left and went to teach in New York at the Girls High School, Brooklyn in their Department of Physiology and Biology until her retirement from teaching in 1932. During this time, she was a member of the New York Science Teachers Association. This was only interrupted from 1926 to 1927, when she took a year off to tutor the princesses of the Japanese royal family at Tsuda College, Tokyo.[3]

In 1940, she became director of Mount Desert Biological Laboratory, Maine.

Her research was focused on marine biology[4] and her work at Bryn Mawr focused on the study of limb regeneration in amphibians as well as studying cyclops, a freshwater species of crustacean.

She died in Maine while on vacation at the age of 79.

Memberships

Works

Notes and References

  1. Book: Damkaer, David M.. The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History. American Philosophical Society. 2002. 978-0-87169-240-5. 272.
  2. Book: Mary R.S. Creese. Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. 1 January 2000. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-585-27684-7. 98.
  3. News: Dr. Esther Byrnes, a Science Teacher; Tutor of Princesses of Royal Family in Japan in 1926-27 Dies. The New York Times. 1946-09-05. 2015-11-22. 0362-4331. Special To The New York Times.
  4. News: Dr. Esther Bynes, Retired Teacher. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 5 Sep 1946. 11. Newspapers.com. 2015-11-22.
  5. https://www.womensactivism.nyc/stories/5634 Women’s Activism website, Esther Fussell Byrnes, 1866 - 1946, article dated August 19, 2020
  6. Proceedings of the American Society of Zoölogists, Twentieth Session. Officers and List of Members . 10.1002/ar.1090240607 . The Anatomical Record . 1923 . 24 . 6 . 437–457 .