Mildred Stratton Wilson

Mildred Stratton Wilson (April 25, 1909 – August 6, 1973) was an American zoologist, whose work on copepods was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955.[1]

Early life and education

Mildred Evelyn Stratton was born in Seaside, Oregon, the daughter of Clark Stratton and Ella Bock Stratton. Her father ran a confectionery shop; her mother was a Danish immigrant. She was raised there and in Everett, Washington. Stratton graduated from Marysville High School in 1925. She earned a teaching certificate in 1927, and taught in Marysville; meanwhile she attended summer plant biology courses at Puget Sound Biological Station. In 1936 she enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley. She earned a B. A. there in 1938.[2]

Career

Mildred Stratton Wilson established a solid record of scientific research without an advanced degree and without any official university affiliation.[2] In 1938 Mildred Stratton Wilson started research, mostly as a volunteer, in the copepod collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D. C. She was appointed assistant curator of marine invertebrate zoology during World War II. After the war, she remained a research associate at NMNH, but her work took her to Alaska, where she was the Territorial Entomologist with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. She became consulting biologist for the Arctic Health Research Center in 1951. In 1955, Wilson was the first Alaskan resident to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She published her research regularly in scientific journals, including Freshwater Biology, Canadian Journal of Zoology, and Crustaceana.[3][2]

She was also the first Alaskan to receive funding from the National Science Foundation,[4] which she held from 1957 to 1967 for her work on freshwater copepods. Wilson became an associate faculty member of the University of Alaska's Institute of Marine Science in 1968, to keep her NSF funding.[2]

Personal life

Mildred Stratton married Charles Sawyer Wilson (not to be confused with Charles Branch Wilson, who was also a copepodologist but no relation), whom she met at Puget Sound Biological Station, in 1934. Their daughter Linda was born in 1939, and died in a car accident in 1972, a few months before Mildred died.[2]

Mildred Stratton Wilson died in 1973, aged 64 years. Her papers are archived at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Mildred Stratton Wilson, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellows directory.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 David M. Damkaer, "Mildred Stratton Wilson, Copepodologist (1909-1973)" Journal of Crustacean Biology 8(1)(February 1988): 131-146.
  3. ↑ Mildred Stratton Wilson, citations, Google Scholar.
  4. 1 2 Guide to the Mildred Stratton Wilson papers, 1925-1987, Archives and Special Collections Department, University of Alaska at Anchorage.
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