Rebeca Acevedo (23 January 1902 - 7 December 1987) was a Chilean professor and botanist. She was the first woman to head the botanical department of the

Chilean National Museum of Natural History The Chilean National Museum of Natural History ( or ) is one of three national museums in Chile, along with the Museum of Fine Arts and the National History Museum. It is located in Quinta Normal Park, and was founded in 1830 by the French natur ...

in 1947.

Biography

Acevedo was born in

Retiro, Chile Retiro is a town and commune in Chile, located in Linares Province, in the seventh region of Maule. Geography Retiro is located to the south of Santiago, to the south of the city of Linares (the provincial capital), and 15 km to the no ...

, in 1902. She obtained bachelor's degrees in biology and chemistry from the

University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

in 1924. While at college, she also studied at the Chilean National Museum of Natural History, where she made contact with renowned Chilean scientists such as . She continued working in the museum as an assistant to Francisco Fuentes Maturana, who was the head of the botanical department. Acevedo began to specialize in grasses, and continued working as a curator. She was put in charge of organizing the herbarium started by

Carlos Muñoz Pizarro Carlos Muñoz Pizarro (September 25, 1913 – May 12, 1976) was a Chilean botanist born in the city of Coquimbo and deceased on May 12, 1976 in New York City. He was well known for his studies of the Chilean flora, its conservation and as univers ...

. In 1947, she became the head of the Museum's botanical department, becoming the first woman to hold that position. She held this position until 1964. As curator of the National Herbarium, she established relationships with various researchers and botanical specialists around the world, such as

Carl Skottsberg Carl Johan Fredrik Skottsberg (1 December 1880 – 14 June 1963) was a Swedish botanist and explorer of Antarctica. Life Skottsberg was born in Karlshamn on 1 December 1880 the son of Carl Adolf Skottsberg a schoolmaster and his wife, Maria ...

, , Otto Solbrig, and Maevia Correa.

Legacy

Species named after Acevedo include '' Escallonia rebecae'' by , and ''

Placseptalia rebecae ''Ochagavia'' is a plant genus in the plant Family (biology), family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Bromelioideae. The genus is named for Silvestre Ochagavía Errázuriz, a Chilean lawyer and minister of education from the 19th century. It is endemic to ...

'' by .Bol. Mus. Nac. Hist. Nat. Santiago de Chile 23: 8 (tt. 1-6) (1947).

References

{{authority control 20th-century Chilean botanists 1902 births 1987 deaths Botanists with author abbreviations People from Linares Province University of Chile alumni Chilean women botanists