| Miriam Lucile Bomhard | |
| Birth Date: | July 24, 1898 |
| Birth Place: | Bellevue, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Death Date: | December 16, 1952 (aged 54) |
| Death Place: | Glenshaw, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of Pittsburgh |
| Occupation: | Botanist |
| Nationality: | American |
Miriam Lucile Bomhard (July 24, 1898 – December 16, 1952) was a conservationist and botanist from the United States of America. She was the first woman to receive a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.[1]
Bomhard was born in Bellevue, Kentucky in 1898, the daughter of the Reverend W.A. Bomhard and Emma (Koch) Bomhard. The family moved to Pittsburgh in 1907. In 1917, she graduated as valedictorian of her high school.
Bomhard attended the University of Pittsburgh on an honour scholarship. She graduated in 1921. She began work at the University of Pittsburgh as a graduate assistant and then as an instructor in the botany department. She conducted research work alongside this, including work at the Carnegie Museum Herbarium. She received a Ph.D in 1926, the first women to receive that degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Her doctoral thesis was on the subject of illustrations and keys in the identification of seeds in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
In 1926, she began work at Newcomb College, which was then the women's department of Tulane University in New Orleans, teaching zoology and botany. She worked there until 1932. She then embarked on a trip to the British colony Malaya.
In 1933, on her return to the United States, she began work as a junior pathologist, and then as a botanist at the Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C., later named the United States Forest Service, where she worked until her death.
Bomhard died in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania in 1952, aged 54.
She was a member of many organisations, including: