Irene Agnes McCulloch (13 September 1885 - 30 May 1987) was a

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies sp ...

and USC biological sciences professor. McCulloch started at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

in 1924 where the marine biology research department lacked funding and resources. To better the research being done, McCulloch convinced George Allan Hancock to fund the G. Allan Hancock Foundation for Marine Research, which was then renamed the Hancock Institute for Marine Studies. McCulloch was given her own foundation in 1969 at USC to continue marine biology research. McCulloch studied microbes within the Pacific Ocean with her main focus being

foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly ...

Early life

Irene Agnes McCulloch was born in

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

on September 13, 1885. She received her Bachelor of Arts as well as her University Teacher's Diploma from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

in 1913. She then worked as a graduate assistant in zoology at University of California, Berkeley, before starting at the University of Southern California in 1924. While at UC Berkeley, she published a book with Charles Kofoid about Trypanosoma triatomae. They compared T. triatomae to

Trypanosoma cruzi ''Trypanosoma cruzi'' is a species of parasitic euglenoids. Among the protozoa, the trypanosomes characteristically bore tissue in another organism and feed on blood (primarily) and also lymph. This behaviour causes disease or the likelihood of ...

, the cause of Chagas disease. Her dissertation at UC Berkeley compared the life cycle

Crithidia ''Crithidia'' is a genus of trypanosomatid Euglenozoa. They are parasites that exclusively parasitise arthropods, mainly insects. They pass from host to host as cysts in infective faeces and typically, the parasites develop in the digestive ...

and

Trypanosoma ''Trypanosoma'' is a genus of kinetoplastids (class Trypanosomatidae), a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa. Trypanosoma is part of the phylum Sarcomastigophora. The name is derived from the Greek ''trypano-'' (b ...

within invertebrate hosts.

Research

When McCulloch first arrived at USC, the marine biology research department only had one skiff, one lab, and one lecture room. George Allan Hancock, an oil baron, had an interest in marine research despite lacking his own formal training. McCulloch convinced Hancock to use his money to fund marine research With McCulloch's help, the Allen Hancock Foundation for Marine Research was established in 1938. Hancock started leading his own expeditions to collect samples: McCulloch and others lobbied the president of USC to fund a Galapagos Expedition. In 1940, another researcher Waldo L. Schmidt discovered a new species of shrimp as a result of the Hancock expeditions. To honor McCulloch, Schmidt named the species '' Tetrasquilla mccullochae.'' McCulloch also aided in the design of Hancock Hall on USC's campus as well as establishing the Hancock Library of Biology and Oceanography. McCulloch later served as a curator emeritus of the Hancock Foundation. McCulloch teamed up with Joseph Augustine Cushman to study foraminifera, which were collected by Allen Hancock in the 1930s. She published 5 works with Cushman, multiple of them cataloguing microbes in the Hancock Collection

Death and legacy

Although she retired from teaching in 1953, McCulloch continued her research late into her life. In 1969, she was given her own foundation by former colleagues and students. Her final work on

was published when she was 94 in 1977. McCulloch passed away at the age of 101 on May 30, 1987. She is buried in

Inglewood Park Cemetery Inglewood Park Cemetery, 720 East Florence Avenue in Inglewood, California, was founded in 1905. A number of notable people, including entertainment and sports personalities, have been interred or entombed there. History The proposed est ...

. The Irene McCulloch Foundation continued publishing a monograph series after her death, which catalogued even more marine microbes. The chair of the marine biology department at USC is now named the McCulloch-Crosby Chair of Marine Biology in her honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCulloch, Irene 1885 births 1987 deaths American marine biologists American women marine biologists People from Kansas University of Kansas alumni University of Southern California faculty 20th-century American zoologists