Shirley Jeffrey
{{short description|Australian marine biologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Shirley W. Jeffrey
|image = Shirley_Jeffrey,_Australian_scientist.jpg
|caption = Shirley Jeffrey
|birth_name = Shirley Winifred Jeffrey
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1930|04|04}}
|birth_place = Townsville, Queensland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2014|1|04|1930|1|04}}
|nationality = Australian
|field = Marine Biology
Plant Biology
Aquaculture
|work_institutions = CSIRO
|alma_mater = University of Sydney
King's College London
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = Isolation and study of chlorophyll c
|influences =
|author_abbrev_bot=S.W.Jeffrey
|prizes = Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal
Australian Centenary Medal
Shinkishi Hatai Medal
Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
|influenced =
| website =
}}
Shirley Winifred Jeffrey {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AM|FAA}} (4 April 1930 – 4 January 2014) was an Australian marine biologist and naturalist, who researched biochemical separation techniques, specialising in micro-algal research; her discovery, isolation and purification of chlorophyll c allowed for the evaluation of oceanic microscopic plant biomass and photosynthesis. She was christened The Mother of chlorophyll c by one of her early mentors, Professor Andrew Benson of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.{{cite news|last1=Lesley Clementson, Tom M Jeffrey, Gustaaf Hallegraeff|title=Shirley Jeffrey: Biochemist gave marine science an ocean of knowledge|url=http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/shirley-jeffrey-biochemist-gave-marine-science-an-ocean-of-knowledge-20140211-32fl5.html|accessdate=14 August 2014|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|date=12 February 2014|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907010707/http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/shirley-jeffrey-biochemist-gave-marine-science-an-ocean-of-knowledge-20140211-32fl5.html|archivedate=7 September 2014|df=dmy-all}}
Early life and education
Jeffrey was born in Townsville, Queensland as the daughter of Tom Jeffrey and his wife, Dorothea (née Cherrington). During her younger years, she did not have a particular interest in science, preferring "playing with animals and dolls and helped my mother in the kitchen and loved cooking".{{cite book|last1=Bhatha|first1=R.S|title=Profiles: Australian Women Scientists|date=1999|publisher=National Library Australia|isbn=0642107017|page=9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I7i4NatJmGcC&q=Professor+Shirley+Jeffrey.&pg=PA9|accessdate=14 August 2014}} While studying at Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne in the early 1940s, she was inspired by a "most memorable teacher", Connie Glass, who led her to be interested in studying the natural world.
Jeffrey completed her secondary schooling in Sydney at Wenona, and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in 1952 and a master's in 1954 at the University of Sydney. She completed a doctorate in biochemical pharmacology in 1958 at King's College, London.
Scientific career
Dr Jeffrey returned to Australia in 1961 after completing her PhD, to work at the Division of Fisheries and Oceanography at CSIRO; it was during this time she researched pigmentation in microalgae,{{cite web|title=Jeffrey, Shirley Winifred (1930-)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1473898|website=Trove|accessdate=14 August 2014}} in 1962 becoming the first person to successfully isolate and purify the accessory pigment chlorophyll c previously known, but incompletely characterised, in various algae.Jeffrey, S.W. 1962. "Purification of Chlorophyll c from Sargassum flavicans." Nature 194: 600.
In 1965, she was aboard the maiden voyage of the scientific expedition on the Alpha Helix, the research vessel of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, which was coming to Australia to study the ecology of the Great Barrier Reef. Her research led to a sabbatical at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1973; during this period she met Australian biologist and future husband Dr Andy Heron.{{cite web|title=Australian Academy of Science Newsletter 95 - Obituaries: Shirley Jeffrey|url=http://www.science.org.au/obituaries-shirley-jeffrey|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140814174043/http://www.science.org.au/obituaries-shirley-jeffrey|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 August 2014|website=Australian Academy of Science|accessdate=14 August 2014}}
Between 1971 and 1977, Dr Jeffrey was a principal scientist at CSIRO's marine biochemistry unit, then a senior principal research scientist CSIRO Division of Fisheries and Oceanography (1977 to 1981) and then senior principal research scientist and then acting chief of CSIRO Division of Fisheries Research (1981–84). While at CSIRO she was in charge of developing the CSIRO's Collection of Living Microalgae (also known as the Algal Culture Collection). Her co-edited work Phytoplankton Pigments in Oceanography was published in 1996 by UNESCO.{{cite web|last1=McDougall|first1=Trevor|title=Interviews with Australian Scientists - Dr Shirley Jeffrey, Marine biologist|url=http://www.sciencearchive.org.au/scientists/interviews/j/sj.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406043635/http://www.sciencearchive.org.au/scientists/interviews/j/sj.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 April 2015|website=Australian Academy of Science|accessdate=14 August 2014}}
Awards
Throughout her career, she received many awards, in recognition of her work, including the 1988 Inaugural Jubilee Award from the Australian Marine Science Association;{{cite web|title=Shirley Jeffrey AM - Tasmanian Honour Roll Of Women 2006|url=http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/cdd/programs_and_services/tasmanian_honour_roll_of_women/inductees/2006/shirley_jeffrey_am|url-status=dead|website=Tasmanian Government Directory|accessdate=14 August 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324142834/http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/cdd/programs_and_services/tasmanian_honour_roll_of_women/inductees/2006/shirley_jeffrey_am|archivedate=24 March 2012|df=dmy-all}} Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) (1991) and she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1993.{{Cite web|title=Dr Shirley Winifred Jeffrey|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/885927|access-date=2021-04-30|website=It's An Honour}} In 1991 she was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales.{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=Jeffrey, Shirley Winifred|url=https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004117b.htm|access-date=2021-04-30|website=Encyclopedia of Australian Science|language=en-gb}}
In 2000, Jeffrey received the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal from the United States National Academy of Sciences, the first person outside the United States to receive this Medal, and was later elected as a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|title=Shirley Jeffrey (Heron) 1930-2014|url=http://www.ioccg.org/news/Feb2014/Shirley_Jeffrey_obituary.pdf|website=International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group|accessdate=14 August 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814224657/http://www.ioccg.org/news/Feb2014/Shirley_Jeffrey_obituary.pdf|archivedate=14 August 2014|df=dmy-all}}
In 2003, she was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal, and in 2007 she received the Shinkishi Hatai Medal at the 21st Pacific Science Congress in Okinawa, Japan.{{cite web|title=Dr. Shirley Jeffrey receives the Shinkishi Hatai Medal|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmFpdcxbsKc|website=YouTube - PacificScienceAssoc| date=3 July 2007 |publisher=PacificScienceAssoc|accessdate=14 August 2014|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926205938/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmFpdcxbsKc|archivedate=26 September 2014|df=dmy-all}}
She was a member, Fellow and former Council member of Jane Franklin Hall, a college of the University of Tasmania and an office-bearer of the Royal Society of Tasmania.
In 2012, several of her colleagues recognised her achievements in "Tribute to Shirley Jeffrey: 50 years of research on chlorophyll c" published in Phycologia (Volume 51, 2: 123–125).{{cite journal|title=Tribute to Shirley Jeffrey: 50 years of research on chlorophyll c|journal=Phycologia|date=March 2012|volume=51|issue=2|pages=123–125|doi=10.2216/0031-8884-51.2.123|last1=Hallegraeff|first1=Gustaaf M.|last2=Blackburn|first2=Susan I.|last3=Roy|first3=Suzanne|last4=Vernet|first4=Maria|last5=Wright|first5=Simon W.|bibcode=2012Phyco..51..123H |s2cid=82946757}} Despite retiring in 1995, Dr Jeffrey continued to research and publish as an honorary research fellow with the CSIRO until her death in 2014, and was an accomplished violinist in the Hobart Chamber Orchestra.
{{Botanist|S.W.Jeffrey}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150406043635/http://www.sciencearchive.org.au/scientists/interviews/j/sj.html Interviews With Australian Scientists profile]
- {{cite web|url=https://www.science.org.au/academy-newsletter/australian-academy-science-newsletter-95/obituaries-shirley-jeffrey|title=Obituaries: Shirley Jeffrey|publisher=Australian Academy of Science|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516052033/https://www.science.org.au/academy-newsletter/australian-academy-science-newsletter-95/obituaries-shirley-jeffrey|archivedate=16 May 2018|url-status=live}}
- {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20140814174008/http://www.phycologia.org/doi/abs/10.2216/0031-8884-51.2.123?journalCode=phya {{!}}A Tribute to Shirley Jeffrey: 50 years of research on chlorophyll c - Phycologia ]}}
- [http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/shirley-jeffrey-biochemist-gave-marine-science-an-ocean-of-knowledge-20140211-32fl5.html Sydney Morning Herald Obituary]
- [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/jeffrey-shirley.pdf Simon W. Wright, Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff, and R. Fauzi C. Mantoura, "Shirley W. Jeffrey", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffrey, Shirley}}
Category:Australian women scientists
Category:Australian planktologists
Category:People from Townsville
Category:University of Sydney alumni
Category:Alumni of King's College London
Category:Members of the Order of Australia
Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences