Lois Ann Pfiester

Lois Ann Pfiester (1936–1992) was an American phycologist and protistologist, specializing in freshwater dinoflagellate species.[1]

Lois Ann Pfiester
Born
Elizabeth Lois Ann Pfiester

(1936-11-20)November 20, 1936
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedSeptember 28, 1992(1992-09-28) (aged 55)
Academic background
Alma materSpalding University
Murray State University
Ohio State University
ThesisPeridinium cinctum f. ovoplanum Lindemann (1974)
Doctoral advisorClarence E. Taft
Academic work
DisciplinePhycology; Protistology
InstitutionsUniversity of Oklahoma

Biography

Pfiester received in 1965 her A.B. from Spalding University, in 1970 her M.A. from Murray State University, and in 1974 her Ph.D. in botany from Ohio State University. She joined in 1974 the faculty of the botany department of the University of Oklahoma as an assistant professor and was a full professor there in 1992 at the time of her death. She directed 4 doctoral dissertations and was the author or coauthor of over 75 journal articles.[2]

In 1978 she went to Prague for four weeks to work with the protistologist Jiří Popovský. The two colleagues identified more than 30 different stages to the life cycle of dinoflagellates of the genus Cystodinedria.[1][3]

Pfiester was an associate editor for the Journal of Phycology from 1980 to 1988.[2] In 1990 she was the president of the Phycological Society of America.

She was an internationally recognized expert on dinoflagellates, especially the genus Peridinium. She was the first to study dinoflagellate life history using light, scanning, and electron transmission microscopy.[1][4]

In 1978 she married Dee Fink. In 1982 they adopted a son, Andrew Fink, and in 1983 a daughter, Laura Fink.[2]

In 1988 North Carolina State University researchers JoAnn Burkholder and Edward Noga discovered a new dinoflagellate genus which they named Pfiesteria in honor of Lois Ann Pfiester.[5][6]

References
  1. Holt, Jack R. "Killer Algae" (PDF).
  2. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy, eds. (2000). "Pfiester, Lois Ann". The Biological Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. vol. 2. Routledge. p. 1015. ISBN 9780415920407.
  3. Pfiester, Lois A.; Popovský, Jiří (31 May 1979). "Parasitic, amoeboid dinoflagellates". Nature. 279 (5712): 421–424. Bibcode:1979Natur.279..421P. doi:10.1038/279421a0. PMID 16068176. S2CID 4311513.
  4. Pfiester, Lois A. (1984). "Sexual reproduction". In Spector, David L. (ed.). Dinoflagellates. New York: Academic Press. pp. 181–200. ISBN 9780323138130.
  5. Steidinger, K.A.; Burkholder, J.M.; Glasgow, H.B. Jr.; Hobbs, C.W.; Garrett, J.K.; Truby, E.W.; Noga, E.J.; Smith, S.A. (1996). "Pfiesteria piscicida gen. et sp. nov. (Pfiesteriaceae fam. nov.), a new toxic dinoflagellate with a complex life cycle and behavior". J. Phycol. 32: 157–164. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3646.1996.00157.x. S2CID 85246132.
  6. Callahan, Joan R. (2011). 50 Health Scares that Fizzled. p. 194. ISBN 9780313385391.
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