Madeleine Alberta Fritz

Madeleine Alberta Fritz (3 November 1896 – 20 August 1990) was a Canadian palaeontologist. She was a professor at the University of Toronto, where she taught vertebrate studies in the department of Geology. Fritz's writing on the fossil Bryozoa along with her research on the stratigraphy of Toronto and the surrounding areas were major contributions to the geological field.

Fritz is considered one of the pioneering researchers on the Palaeozoic fossil Bryozoa, which is a type of sea creature that bonds together and builds joint skeletons composed of tiny chambers or tubes. Her research on these creatures has led her to being called the “great-grandmother of Palaeozoic Bryozoa". Her scientific journals on these extinct marine invertebrates are internationally acclaimed.

Fritz worked at The Royal Ontario Museum as an associate director from 1936 to 1955, and later became the Invertebrate Palaeontology Curator at the ROM from 1955 to 1957. In 1956, she became a palaeontology professor at University of Toronto under the Department of Geology until her official retirement in 1967. Fritz was a member of the Geological Association of Canada and the Geological Society of America. She also was a member of the Canadian Confederation of University Women and the International Federation of University Women Panel of Experts. Despite this, Fritz mentioned that she felt accepted by those in her class and that no one ever tried to deter her from pursuing her degree in geology. She ended up juggling fieldwork, teaching and administrative duties for a good part of her career. Fritz officially ended her career with retirement in 1967, but she continued to research human evolution and origin of the Earth for the majority of her life.

She also took part in a lot of fieldwork over the course of her career which was opposed quite strongly by the Geological Survey of Canada.

Fritz's career was a reflection of a successful female academic breakthrough in a field mainly dominated by males since it was associated with rugged work like mining and exploration.

Commemoration Madeleine Fritz's contribution to palaeontology is remembered during the "Madeleine Fritz Annual Lecture in Palaeontology" event where namely women guest speakers discuss advancements in the geological field. It is also a space for discussion about new research and findings in the field. This event is held at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The Royal Ontario Museum has an annual travel grant that Fritz had created a fund for. Each year, two grants are given out to students furthering their education in palaeontology. Up to 1,000 dollars is awarded for each grant. It is used to lighten the financial burden for the students so that they can attend the Royal Ontario Museum and examine their artifacts and fossils. The grant is called the "M.A Fritz Travel Grant", having been named after her.

Honours Fritz received several honours throughout her lifetime. In 1942 she entered the Royal Society of Canada as the second woman to receive such honour within Canada. In 1967, Fritz received the Canadian Centennial Medal. She studied the species Atactoporella, Homotrypa, and Homotrypella. These bryozoan types are situated at the Royal Ontario Museum in the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology. She also redescribed a variation of the genus S. catenulata diversa as Mesotrypa catenulata diversa. Additionally, she redescribed bryozoan-type samples which gathered from the marine rocks surrounding Workman's Creek.

It was during the time that Fritz studied under renowned palaeontologist William Arthur Parks that she took on a leadership role in the North American study of Ordovician Bryozoa. She was very grateful to have been able to be mentored by Parks, and she demonstrated her gratitude by writing a biography of him that was published in 1971.