Ruth Patrick

Ruth Patrick (1907 - 2013) was an influential American botanist who pioneered environmental science and pollution control efforts. Specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology, she developed ways to measure the health of wetlands. For the latter half of her life, she worked at the Patrick Center for Environmental Research (PCER), which she founded in 1948. During her lifetime, she created numerous partnerships with industry for monitoring of pollution effects in lakes and streams, and she published more than 200 scientific papers.