Correspondence of Sophie Charlotte Ducker [1990.0008]

University of Melbourne Archives

History Sophie Charlotte Ducker was born in Dresden in 1909. She and family fled Germany in 1938 and upon arriving in Australia were interned in the Enemy Aliens Detention Centre in Tatura. After her release in 1944 she became a technical assistant in the Botany School under the mentorship of Dr Ethel McLennan, and studied part-time for a BSc. Her special area was marine botany, which she introduced to the Botany School curriculum. In 1953 she was appointed Senior Demonstrator and by the time of her retirement in 1974, she was a Reader in Botany. Sophie Ducker remained in the School of Botany for thirty years, completing an MSc, while at the same time demonstrating, teaching, supervising students, and establishing courses in phycology. She nominally retired in 1974 as a Reader, but continued to lecture, give papers at international conferences, and to undertake scientific research with colleagues. Her interests expanded to include seagrasses and those botanists who had first described Australian flora, the latter resulted in her publication of the edited letters of William Harvey, 'The Contented Botanist', in 1988. In 1978 she was awarded a DSc, in recognition of her published work, in 1993 an LLD, in 1996 the ANZAAS Mueller Medal, and in 1997 an AM. Sophie died on 20 May 2004 at the age of 95.