Nationality Irish Name Maura Scannell | Died 2011 | |
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Born 18 March 1924Ireland ( 1924-03-18 ) Notable awards Honorary member Botanical Society of the British Isles, 1995; National Botanic Gardens Medal, May 2008 | ||
Mary J. P. "Maura" Scannell (1924 - 2011) was a leading Irish botanist.
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Professional career
Scannell became Assistant Keeper of the Natural History Division of the National Museum, Ireland, 1949. Her special interest was the botany of Ireland, especially in the past. She was an expert in the identification of woods and charcoals, leading her to identify the material used in all the Irish harps in the National Museum as well as from archaeological sites. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland called her "an inspiration to generations of botanists" for her taxonomic knowledge of seeds and fibres as well as microfungi and algae.
In 1970, she supervised the transfer of the National Herbarium from the National Museum in central Dublin to the National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin. She was an active member of the Irish regional committee of the (now) Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland from 1963 - 1994. She was a judge in the Irish Young Scientists Exhibition from the 1960s. One of her most important contributions was in fostering a love of botany in others. She remained Head of the National Herbarium until she retired in 1989, but continued as an author, field botanist and visitor to the Herbarium.
Scientific legacy
Her very wide knowledge within botany, particularly of Ireland and the Herbarium collection, is illustrated in the diversity of publications that acknowledge her contribution or advice: a follow-up to a record of Salix hibernica in Ireland in 1963 records her contribution of information from the Herbarium indicating the tree's presence in Ireland substantially earlier, in the 1880s; Identifying the species of reeds in a print of an oil painting in 1996 led to its identification as an important post-Famine Irish landscape painting; Identification of wood and charcoal fragments for archaeological excavations.
Over 200 scientific publications, books and floras are attributed to her, in addition to specimens and field records deposited in the national Herbarium. The latter are among the largest contribution by any botanist. A new plant species was named after her in 2008, Sorbus scannelliana (Maura Scannell's Whitebeam).