Mary E. White

AM
Born(1926-02-22)22 February 1926
South Africa
Died5 August 2018(2018-08-05) (aged 92)
Warrigal aged care complex
Cause of deathManslaughter
NationalityAustralian
EducationUniversity of Cape Town
Known forAuthor
SpouseBill White
AwardsRiversleigh medal
Scientific career
FieldsPaleobotany
InstitutionsBureau of Mineral Resources
Australian Museum

Mary Elizabeth White AM (22 February 1926 – 5 August 2018) was an Australian paleobotanist and author, notable for collecting numerous plant fossils for the Australian Museum, describing a number of new plant fossil species, and authoring several well received, large format science books for the general readership including "The Greening of Gondwana" (1986) and successors.[1]

Biography

Early years and scientific career

White was born in South Africa, grew up in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and received a master's degree in paleobotany from the University of Cape Town.[2] She married Bill White, a geologist; the couple came to Australia in 1955.[1] White worked as a consultant for the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra until the 1980s; she also consulted on a part-time basis for mining companies. In 1975, she was hired as a research associate for the Australian Museum; she established a collection of 12,000 specimens of plant fossils for the museum.[2] Among her published output were descriptions of several new species and genera including Agathis jurassica, Rissikia talbragarensis and Pentoxylon australica from the Late Jurassic Talbragar Fish Beds, Squamella, a new genus of Glossopterid fructification from the Late Permian, and Cylomeia, a new genus for an Early Triassic lycopod.[3][4][5]

She began writing large format, well illustrated science books after her husband died in 1981, highlights including "The Greening of Gondwana" (1986); "The Nature of Hidden Worlds" (1990), "Time in Our Hands" (1991), and "After the Greening: The Browning of Australia" (1994), the last of which received one of the 1994 Eureka Prizes.

In 2003, White purchased a large forested property, Falls Forest Retreat, approximately halfway between Taree and Port Macquarie in New South Wales; she established a covenant to protect the land and preserve its biodiversity.[2] In 2013 she sold the property but with the covenant it can never be disturbed.

Illness and death

In her later years White suffered from vascular dementia and a stroke and went to live with her daughter and her daughter's husband in Bundanoon, New South Wales between 2014 and 2016. In 2016, following another stroke she moved to a nearby aged-care centre. On 5 August 2018, White was found dead in her room at the Warrigal aged care complex, apparently as a result of drugs administered without authorization by her daughter, Barbara Eckersley. Eckersley was charged with her mother's murder; at her bail hearing, her barrister maintained that his client had the "belief that the aged-care centre weren't able to deal with Dr White's agitation and pain".[6][7][8] After more than two years' delay, Eckersley was eventually found guilty, not of murder but of the lesser charge of manslaughter and was spared jail time, instead being sentenced to a two year community corrections order on account of what the judge termed her "low moral culpability" due to a "diagnosis of severe depression".[9]

Awards and honours

White received honorary doctorates from four Australian universities,[1] plus the Riversleigh medal in 1999 for "excellence in promoting understanding of Australian prehistory". In 2010, she received a Lifetime of Conservation award from the Australian Geographic Society.[2] She was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science's Mueller Medal in 2001. In 2009, she was made a Member the Order of Australia (AM) for "service to botany as a researcher and through the promotion of increased understanding and awareness of the natural world".[10][11]

Publications

Books

  • Australia's Prehistoric Plants & Their Environment (Methuen, 1985)
  • The Greening of Gondwana – The 400 Million Year Story of Australia's Plants (Reed Books, 1986)
  • The Nature of Hidden Worlds – Animals and Plants in Prehistoric Australia and New Zealand (Reed Books, 1990)
  • Muttaburrasaurus: An Australian Dinosaur in Its Time and Space (Houghton Mifflin, 1990) – with Robyn Muche (Illustrator)
  • Amphibians of the Triassic : Tadpole Hunting 220 Million Years Ago (Houghton Mifflin, 1990) – with Robyn Muche (Illustrator)
  • Time in Our Hands – Semi-precious Gemstones: Keys to the Geological Past (Reed Books, 1991)
  • After the Greening: The Browning of Australia (Houghton Mifflin, 1994), received a Eureka Prize
  • Listen... Our Land is Crying (Kangaroo Press, 1997)
  • Reading the Rocks (Kangaroo Press, 1999)
  • Running Down: Water in a Changing Land (Kangaroo Press, 2000), which was shortlisted for a Eureka Prize[12]
  • Earth Alive! From Microbes to a Living Planet (Rosenberg Publishing, 2003)[10]

Scientific papers

refer text.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dolsen, Brett (31 October 2013). "Eighty five years of researching life on Earth". Australian Broadcasting Company. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "2010 AG Awards Lifetime of Conservation: Mary White". Australian Geographic Society. 6 October 2010.
  3. White, M.E. (1978). "Reproductive structures of the Glossopteridales in the plant fossil collection of the Australian Museum" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 31 (12): 473–505. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.31.1978.223.
  4. White, M.E. (1981). "Revision of the Talbragar Fish Bed Flora (Jurassic) of New South Wales" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 33 (15): 695–721. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.33.1981.269.
  5. White, M.E. (1981). "Cylomeia undulata (Burges) gen.et comb.nov., a lycopod of the Early Triassic strata of New South Wales" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 33 (16): 723–734. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.33.1981.270.
  6. "Renowned scientist Mary White allegedly murdered by her daughter". ABC News. 9 August 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  7. "Loss of a national treasure: Woman, 92, who was 'murdered by her daughter' revealed to be an award-winning scientist and author who was honoured with the Order of Australia". msn.com. 9 August 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  8. "Scientist Mary White's daughter, charged with her murder at aged-care facility, granted bail". ABC News. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  9. "Barbara Eckersley spared jail time for killing elderly mother using 'green dream' drugs". ABC News. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  10. 1 2 "The Queen's Birthday 2009 Honours List" (PDF). Governor-General of Australia. p. 108. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  11. "White, Mary Elizabeth". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  12. "Our Patron – Dr Mary E. White". Climate Change Australia.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.