Marie Daiber (24 August 1868 – 6 July 1928) was a German-born Swiss zoologist. In 1913 she was the first woman to obtain a teaching certification at the Philosophical Faculty II of the University of Zurich. After earning her PhD she became a professor at that same university.

Biography

Marie Daiber was born in Esslingen (Württemberg) and spent her youth in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, Germany, where her father taught science at Katharinenstift since 1870. She attended that same school followed by the associated teacher training college where she graduated in 1888. Then she worked as a private teacher for ten years. She began university language studies in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, England, before enrolling in science at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

, Switzerland, in 1899. In 1904, Marie Daiber received her doctorate under the Swiss naturalist

Arnold Lang Arnold Lang (18 June 1855 – 30 November 1914) was a Swiss naturalist, a comparative anatomist and student of German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Biography In March 1876 he earned his PhD from the University of Jena, and two months later became hab ...

and eventually became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

Swiss citizen. In the same year she took up an assistant position at the Zoological Institute of the University of Zurich. She also worked at the bibliographic resource for researchers called the

Concilium Bibliographicum The Concilium Bibliographicum was established in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1895 by the U.S. zoologist Herbert Haviland Field in response to the lack of timely and complete bibliographies to serve the new sciences that had begun to emerge in the late ...

. She was promoted to prosector of the Zoological Institute in 1909 and she held that position until her death. In 1913, Marie Daiber qualified as a professor at the University of Zurich and was given a teaching post for comparative

embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

. Beginning in 1914, she was also entrusted with the zootomical-microscopic training course. In recognition of her services to the Zoological Institute, she was appointed a professor in 1922. She received credit for writing many chapters in the volume ''Anthropoda'' of Arnold Lang's ''Handbook of Invertebrate Morphology,'' and she was involved in Lang' research in the field of experimental genetics. Marie Daiber died at 59 on 6 July 1928 in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Italy, after a long illness.

Selected works

* Daiber, Marie. ''Contributions to the knowledge of the ovaries of Bacillus rossii FaBR. together with some biological remarks''. 1904. * Daiber, Marie, and assistant at the zoological-comparative anatomical laboratory. ''On the question of the origin and regenerative capacity of the spleen''. ''Jen. Zeitschr. für Naturwiss'' (1907). * Jordan, Hermann, Marie Daiber, Johannis Strohl, Leo Zürcher, and Herbert Haviland Field. ''Bibliographia physiologica: (adhuc diario" Zentralblatt für physiologie: adnexa)''. Vol. 8. sumptibus Concilii bibliographici, 1913. * Daiber, Marie. ''Arachnoidea''. G. Fischer, 1913. * Daiber, Marie. ''The abdominal rib system of Sphenodon Hatteria punctatus Gray''. G. Fischer, 1920.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daiber, Marie 1868 births 1928 deaths Swiss zoologists 20th-century Swiss zoologists 20th-century Swiss women scientists 20th-century Swiss educators German emigrants to Switzerland Women zoologists University of Zurich alumni