Alberta M. W. Mennega

Alberta Maria Wilhelmina "Bep" Mennega (29 July 1912 – 20 December 2009) was a Dutch botanist renowned for her studies into the anatomy of wood and plant systematics.

Biography Mennega studied biology at the Utrecht University, earning her Ph.D in 1938. In 1946, she accepted a position at the Utrecht University Botanic Gardens. The university was in need of people who were able to assess the quality of imported wood, and although her educational background was in physiology, she was retrained in wood anatomy. While working at the university, she started a world renowned wood collection. Mennega's research also contributed significately to the flora of Suriname.

Mennega retired from the university in 1977. In 1988, she founded the Alberta Mennega Foundation as a scholarship for students and researchers in the field of botany, prioritizing the funding of fieldwork in the tropics.