Bella MacCallum | |
---|---|
Born | 1886 |
Died | 17 March 1927 | (aged 40–41)
Alma mater | |
Spouse |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Botany and Mycology |
Bella Dytes MacIntosh MacCallum (née Cross, 1886 – 17 March 1927) was a New Zealand and British botanist and mycologist and was New Zealand's first female doctor of science.[1][2]
MacCallum was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the daughter of George and Rebecca Cross.[3] She attended Timaru Girls' High School, then Canterbury College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1908 and a master's degree in 1909 with First Class Honours in botany, focussing on halophyte plant adaptations to salty soil.[4] Her master's degree involved field observations and anatomical studies, and compared botanical formations in Christchurch to Timaru.[5] She was awarded a National Research Scholarship, which she used to continue research on wetland plants.[4] She taught at high-schools before she earned her doctorate from the University of New Zealand in 1917 with a thesis on Phormium (N.Z. flax), titled Phormium with Regard to Its Economic Importance; a work whose origins in 1909 were inspired by the work and advice of Dr Leonard Cockayne.[2][4][6] She represented her university in tennis, was a member of the hockey 1st XI, and the Executive of the Students' Association.[2]
In 1915, MacCallum married Lance (Lancelot) Shadwell Jennings, and became known as Bella Jennings.[3] Both were tennis champions and researchers.[2] Captain Jennings was killed on 15 September 1916 at the Western Front, aged 23.[7] In 1919, she married Peter MacCallum at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. She had three daughters from her second marriage.[3]
In 1919, MacCallum moved to England, where she studied bacteriology at Cambridge Medical School, then moved to the University of Edinburgh, where she researched fungi, specifically timber staining fungi,[4] publishing Some Wood-Staining Fungi in 1920.[6] She was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1921. Less is known about her life after this point; she moved to Australia when husband Peter MacCallum was elected Chair of Pathology at Melbourne University,[5] and died on 17 March 1927,[6] giving birth to their third daughter, Bella.[1]
In 2017, MacCallum featured as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words" project, celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[4]