Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich

Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich (October 12, 1917 – August 18, 2004) was a leading micropaleontologist, a professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles, a United States Geological Survey (USGS) biostratigrapher, and a scientific illustrator whose micropaleontology specialty was research on Cretaceous foraminifera.[2][3]

Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich
Born	October 12, 1917 Norman, Oklahoma
Died	August 18, 2004 (aged 86) Anaheim, California
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Oklahoma, University of Chicago
Known for	fossil Foraminfera classification
Spouse(s)	Alfred R. Loeblich Jr.
Scientific career
Fields	Micropaleontology, Biostratigraphy
Institutions	University of California, Los Angeles
Doctoral advisor	Carey G. Croneis[1]
Doctoral students	Jere H. Lipps, Tim Patterson,[1]

Education

Tappan Loeblich earned her BS in 1937 and her Master's in 1939, both in geology from the University of Oklahoma. Her master's thesis was on mid-Cretaceous foraminifera of Oklahoma and Texas. At the University of Oklahoma, she met her future husband and long time scientific collaborator, in chemistry class, where they fell in love in 1939. Shortly thereafter they married and spent their honeymoon doing field work with their graduate advisor, in south-central Oklahoma,[4] Alfred R. Loeblich Jr.,

Leoblich received her Ph.D. in 1942 from the University of Chicago, and her dissertation continued her master's work. When her husband was drafted in 1942, Tappan Loeblich became the first female professor at Tulane University's College of Arts and Sciences. In 1953 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to allow her to take a sabbatical from her USGS appointment and travel to Europe to collect foraminifera with her husband.[2]

Research

1953-1954

While working on the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Helen's research partner and husband Alfred was stationed in Europe by the Smithsonian Institution, in order to do further research on Foraminiferal samples seen in European museums, and those he collected in the field. Due to the USGS and their policy of not allowing work outside of the US, Helen took a leave of absence in order to join her husband in Europe. During their travels, the pair collected many samples, and greatly extended their knowledge on Foraminifera.[2]

Foraminifera

Helen was known for her studies of Foraminifera,

• 
  Illustration of a foraminifera shell, published by Robert Hooke.

1954-1957

Helen became an honorary research associate of the Smithsonian institution, and moved to California to pursue a career with the University of California, where in 1966, she became a full time faculty member, and then the vice chairman of geology from 1973 to 1975. Her husband Alfred began work on a micropaleontological program at Chevron Oil Field Research Company.[2]

Publications

With her husband, Tappan Loeblich is the author of two major works on foraminiferal classification, two volumes in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part C. Protista 2 (Sarcodina, Chiefly "Thecamoebians" and Foraminiferida), Volumes 1 and 2 (1964)[2][5] by USGS and the University of Kansas and their two-volume work, Foraminiferal Genera and Their Classification, published in 1988 by Springer.[6] The Treatise classified foraminifera genera by the morphology of their external tests or shells, and Foraminferal Genera revised and refined the classification of forams by adding test internal characteristics and reviewing type specimens.[2]

Awards

Helen received many awards during her lifetime. Notable awards include the Paleontological Society Medal in 1983, the Woman of the Year Award in Natural Science from the Palm Springs Desert Museum in 1987, the Raymond C. Moore Medal for “Excellence in Paleontology” in 1984, and the 1982 Woman of Science Award from the UCLA Medical Center Auxiliary.[2]

Contributions to Science

Helen was a very important figure, not just for the Paleontology community, but for everyone around her as well. Apart from her outstanding accomplishments in Geology and Paleontology; the time she spent teaching at UCLA, she mentored and inspired numerous students. Many of whom went on pursuing and achieving prominence in geology, palynology, paleontology, and micropaleontology.[2] During her lifetime, she had also worked on numerous editorial and society boards. Helen is remembered for much of her work, but she is best remembered for her books and landmark paper, as well as her prodigious scientific output, Both as a sole author and collaborator. Helen published a total of 272 scientific papers or books mainly with her husband Alfred. One of their most notable works was their 1957 paper “Correlation of the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Paleocene and lower Eocene formations by means of planktonic Foraminifera” which won the Best Paper Award in the Journal of Paleontology.[2] Other than the paper she was also very proud of her book, “The Paleobiology of Plant Protists” (1980), and was also voted “the best non-fiction book” for that year. Helen’s publications and research were scientifically grounded and always first-rate. Apart from being an excellent writer and editor, she demanded the same level of excellence from her students and colleagues as well. Helen instilled in her students' a strong work ethic and commitment to try and be the best versions of themselves. Aside from publishing award-winning papers and books, Helen would often put her work down and help her students with their research. Helen was a very humble and soft-spoken woman who led by example. Her contributions to the community were not restricted to Paleontology or Geology but also to share her expertise and advising future students who would later continue her example and work to improve the Paleontology community in the future.[2]

Marriage & Later Life

Most of Loeblich's achievements were accomplished alongside her husband and fellow researcher Alfred R. Loeblich Jr., whom she met in the University of Oklahoma, during her Master of Science degree in 1939. They married on June 18th of the same year, and had four children including Alfred Richard leoblich III, who took a doctorate in botany at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.[2] Helen's husband took up a teaching post at Tulane's College of Arts and Sciences in New Orleans, and was drafted into the US military in 1942. Helen taught in his stead, and became the first woman faculty member in the faculty's history.[2]

After the war, Helen and her husband moved to Washington D.C., where they began new lines of research.[2]

References

1. Finger, Kenneth. L. (2013). "California foraminiferal micropalaeontology" (PDF). In A.J. Bowden; F.J. Gregory; A.S. Henderson (eds.). Landmarks in Foraminiferal Micropalaeontology: History and Development. Geological Society of London. pp. 125–144.
2. Reed Wicander. "In Memoriam: Helen Nina Tappan Loeblich". senate.universityofcalifornia.edu.
3. Lipps, Jere H. (2006). "Helen Tappan and Alfred R. Loeblich, Jr. Micropaleontologists". Anuário do Instituto de Geociências. 29 (1): 178–181. Archived from the original on 2015-01-18. Retrieved 2015-01-18.
4. In Memoriam: Dr. Helen Nina Tappan Loeblich. Journal of Foraminifera Research. January 1, 2005. doi.10.2113/35.1.86.
5. "Treatise Volumes Published and Forthcoming". ku.edu.
6. Loeblich, A. R., & Tappan, H. (1988). Foraminiferal genera and their classification (Vol. 2, p. 970). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
7. IPNI.  Tappan.