Name Marie Taylor | ||
Marie Clark Taylor (1911 – December 1990) was an African-American botanist, the first woman to earn a science doctorate at Fordham University, and the Head of the Botany Department at Howard University from 1947 to her retirement in 1976. Her research interest was plant photomorphogensis.
Biography
Taylor was born in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1911. She earned her B.S. (1933) and M.S. (1935, Botany) at Howard University, and in 1941, her Ph.D. at Fordham University, being the first woman of any race to earn a science doctorate at Fordham.
She briefly taught high school, and later started up summer science institutes for high school science teachers, bringing new methods of how to teach science, such as using light-microscopes to study cells. After serving in the Army Red Cross during World War II, in 1945, she joined the botany department at Howard University. She chaired the botany department starting in 1947 at Howard University until her retirement in 1976. During her tenure, the department expanded and Taylor was involved in the design and construction of a new biology building on the Howard University campus. She married Richard Taylor on January 1, 1948, having one son with him.
Taylor also taught a summer science series for the National Science Foundation designed for biology teachers to make use of botanical materials for their courses to illustrate cell life. These summer classes also developed her teaching methods, where she also emphasized microscopes to study living cells. During the mid-1960s, she was requested by President Lyndon B. Johnson to expand her work overseas, bringing her teaching style to an international level.
After her death, an auditorium in the Ernest. E. Just Hall at Howard University was named in her honor.
Taylor died in 1990.