Elke Mackenzie

Elke Mackenzie (11 September 1911 – 18 January 1990), born Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, was a British polar explorer and botanist who specialised in the field of lichenology. Beginning her education in Edinburgh, Scotland, Mackenzie later pursued botany at the University of Edinburgh, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1933 and a Doctor of Science in 1942. In the two years she was involved in Operation Tabarin, a covert World War II mission to Antarctica, she identified and documented many lichen species, several of them previously unknown to science.

Over the course of her career in academia, Mackenzie held positions at the British Museum, National University of Tucumán, National Museum of Canada, and the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany at Harvard University. In 1971, Mackenzie transitioned, renaming herself to Elke Mackenzie, and faced institutional prejudice as a result. After retirement, her later years were marred by poor health. Despite facing adversity, her legacy is preserved in the names of two genera, numerous species and a cape, all named in her honour. Mackenzie's contributions to polar exploration earned her polar medals from both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Early life Mackenzie was born in Clapham, London, on 11 September 1911. She was assigned male and was raised as a boy. Mackenzie's family moved to Scotland while she was a child, and she was enrolled in the Edinburgh Academy. After her graduation in 1929, she attended the University of Edinburgh. She earned her B.Sc. with Honours in Botany in 1933. She received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, and continued doing research in botany at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the University of Würzburg. A promontory on Snow Hill Island, Lamb Cliffs, is also named in her honour. Some of Mackenzie's major works include: