Immigrant of the Day: Katherine Esau (Russia)

Katherine Esau (1898–1997). a botanist, was born in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) to a family of Mennonites of German descent. After the Russian Revolution, her family moved to Germany, and then to California, where she earned her doctorate in 1931.

Esau was a pioneering plant anatomist, perhaps the greatest plant anatomist of the 20th century. Her books Plant Anatomy and Anatomy of Seed Plants have been key plant structural biology texts for the last four decades. She was the sixth woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1957, and in 1989 she was awarded the National Medal of Science. The Katherine Esau Award is awarded to the graduate student who presents the best paper in structural and developmental biology at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America.

Katherine Esau was a gifted lecturer and author as well as a brilliant scientist. A kind and modest person, she never married and led a life full of scientific achievements, which inspires female scientists all over the world. Esau died in 1997 in Santa Barbara.

KJ