Fifty-seven years ago, a freshman high school girl from Collins, Iowa, the daughter of Charles Hattery and Blanche Brown Hattery, made her first trip to participate in the "Brain Derby" at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. She hadn't been that far east before. But that trip was the beginning of a remarkable career of scholarship which was to carry her to Iowa City for three more top level competitions in the "Brain Derby" and then to a 54-year association of scholarship with Iowa State University. Included in her accomplishments were three degrees (B.S.-1945, M.S.-1947, Ph.D.-1950) and becoming the first woman scientist in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to be awarded the title Distinguished Professor.
Now the senior member of the entire Iowa State University faculty, she can look back on a career which has inspired thousands of students, on a career of service which has touched all of Iowa in many ways, and a broad range of research efforts which have launched 36 graduate students and brought national recognition to her efforts. She can also look back on the dark ages of unashamed sexism on the part of some of the University and faculty which blighted the mat 20 years of her career. She had to work harder, be brighter, wait longer for promotion, teach a heavier load and do it all without letting the continuing injustice break her spirit. Dr. Lois Tiffany is a tenacious and wise person. The wisdom clearly indicated that the price of being able to teach students, serve students, and continue her research was thick-skinned patience. The results are both monumental and obvious. She became the:
1 . First woman president of the Iowa Academy of Science (1977)
2. First woman president of the Osborne Club (1984)
3 . First person to win the Govemor's Science Medal for Teaching (1 982)
4. First person to win the Mycological Society of America William Weston award for teaching (1980)
5. First Distinguished Veishea Professor (1993)
6. First woman scientist in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to be awarded the title Distinguished Professor (1 994)
Her research has spanned the entire range of the Fungus kingdom The research projects which have received special attention include midwestern mushrooms, aflatoxin studies of both corn and soybeans, the morel survey, prairie plant diseases, and her first love--the developmental morphology of the ascomycetes. She is the continuing heart and soul of Botany Club, which inspired open house displays and produced gourmet meals over open campfires for forty years.. Her determined, quiet competency convinced many that women had a well-deserved place in the halls of science. Her legacy to women scientists is a clearer path through the academic forest and assurance that a woman can be a first-class scientist and will be recognized for it. 7/1/96 |
