Daphne E. Lee is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

. She is best known for her work on

Foulden Maar Foulden Maar is a fossil site near Middlemarch in Otago, New Zealand. The fossils were deposited in the small deep crater lake of a maar formed around 23 million years ago by a volcano in the Miocene era. The crater lake existed for a period of ...

and her research into fossils discovered at that site.

Biography

Lee was brought up in

Mataura Mataura is a town in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand. Mataura has a meat processing plant, and until 2000 it was the site of a large pulp and paper mill. Geography Mataura is situated on and the Main South Line rail ...

in Southland. Lee was the first New Zealand woman to graduate with a PhD in geology. Her dissertation was titled ''The Cenozoic and recent rhynchonellide brachiopods of New Zealand, with an account of the Eocene and Paleocene brachiopod faunas''. She joined the faculty of the university in 1988. Lee is an honorary associate professor at the geology department of the

, having retired in 2018. In 2024 she was awarded the title emeritus professor, "in recognition of her outstanding career as one of New Zealand’s most prominent, dedicated and passionate paleontologists". She is a coordinator of a research team that has focused on researching the fossil site Foulden Maar.

Foulden Maar

Lee has published both scholarly research as well as a book on the fossils of Foulden Maar. Lee was a vocal opponent of the proposed mining of Foulden Maar.

Awards

Lee was awarded the Geoscience Society of New Zealand McKay Hammer Award in 2017.

Selected publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Daphne Living people New Zealand paleontologists Women paleontologists New Zealand women scientists 20th-century New Zealand scientists 21st-century New Zealand geologists 1950 births