Frances Lawrence Parker (28 March 1906 – 2002) was an American geologist and micropaleontologist. She is credited for writing, co-writing, and publishing many academic books and articles with a focus of paleoceanography and micropaleontology. She had been awarded for her extensive contributions to the modern-day knowledge of benthic and planktonic foraminifera.
Frances Lawrence Parker was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, March 28, 1906. She was the youngest child of Philip Stanley Parker and Eleanor Payson Parker, with two older sisters and a brother.
Parker completed a bachelor's degree in Geology with a minor in chemistry at Vassar College in 1928. Unlike other institutions at the time, Vassar promoted quality science courses for women.[1] Throughout her studies, she attended geological trips to Wyoming, accompanied by geologist Thomas McDougall Hills, which focused on glacial geology.[2] In 1930 Parker received a masters in geology from MIT.
After completing her master's degree, Parker became the research assistant of Joseph Cushman, a micropaleontologist, at the Cushman laboratory in Sharon, Massachusetts. With funding from the U.S. Geological Survey, Cushman and Parker studied foraminifera. While studying foraminifera, Parker took the United States Geological Survey exam and passed. This allowed her to become an assistant palaeontologist. In the 1930s, Cushman and Parker traveled to central Europe to study various specimens and visited many scientists, museums, and laboratories that were engaged in micropaleontology study. Together, the palaeontologists published sixteen papers based on the research gathered between 1930 and 1940. During this time, she also spent time researching for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution alongside Fred B. Phleger during the summers of 1936–1940.
In 1940, Parker briefly stepped back from her work in the science field and worked as academic secretary at Foxcroft School, an exclusive girls’ school in Virginia. Three years later in 1943, she was offered an opportunity to return to a research position; this time expanding from her work in foraminifera taxonomy and into the petroleum industry, specifically to the Shell Oil company in Houston, Texas. She held a position as senior paleontologist with the company from 1943 until 1945. Subsequently, in 1947, Parker once again began to work with Fred B. Phleger, a now faculty member at Amherst College in Boston, doing summer research in his laboratory, which was funded by WHOI. Together, they studied the taxonomy of Atlantic foraminifera.
Parker eventually retired from working with Phleger, after which she moved on to become a researcher at Scripps Research. She studied a variety of subjects, including geology, ecology, biogeography, and taxonomy. During her time at Scripps laboratory, Parker wrote and published over thirty articles independently and in collaboration with colleagues.
During the 1950s, Parker and Phleger continued to work together, leading them to move their research to La Jolla, California. After founding the Marina Foraminifera Laboratory at SIO, Parker spent her time as an associate in marine geology, later as a junior research geologist and then finally as an assistant research geologist. After a brief break from SIO, in 1960 Parker returned and was promoted to associate research geologist. Lastly from 1967 until her retirement in 1973, she was a research paleontologist. Although retired, Parker continued to work as a research associate.
Parker had a long career in which she explored many subjects such as taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, stratigraphy, and preservation. She published over 30 papers while making critical contributions to her field. The most cited of these papers being “Planktonic foraminiferal species in Pacific sediments” in 1962. This paper changed the way planktonic foraminifers are identified in the modern age. Additionally, a 1973 follow-up study titled, “Late Cenozoic biostratigraphy (planktonic foraminifera) of tropical Atlantic deep-sea sections”, has also been cited numerous times. Her works led her to become the editor for special publications by the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research.[3]
Parker's work was not only limited to research, but her contributions also led her to founding the Marine Foraminifera Laboratory at Scripps with Fred B. Phleger in 1950, which was funded by the American Petroleum Institute, later by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.
The Berger–Parker index is named after Parker and Wolfgang H. Berger.[4]
Her work becoming known for "becoming part of the foundations of modern paleooceanography" ., Parker has been recognized as an influential researcher, earning the Cushman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Foraminiferal Research in 1981.[5]