Mary E. Rice

Mary Esther Rice (August 3, 1926 – April 29, 2021) was an American invertebrate zoologist specializing in systematics, evolution and the development of marine invertebrates. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution as a curator, educator, research advisor, and administrator from 1966 until her retirement in 2002. She is known for her work on the life histories of Sipuncula, as well as for serving as the first director of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce.

Biography and education Mary E. Rice was born in Washington, D.C., on August 3, 1926, to Daniel Gibbons Rice and Florence Catherine Pyles Rice. She grew up on a farm in southern Maryland and attended school in Oxon Hill.

In 1947, Rice graduated from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, with an A.B. in Biology. She first attended graduate school at Oberlin College in Ohio, earning an M.A. in zoology in 1949. Rice then returned to New Jersey to teach biology at Drew.

In 1950, Rice began working as a research associate at Columbia University's Department of Radiology. She left Columbia in 1953 to accept an appointment as a general physiologist at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. In 1955, she advanced to the position of biologist at the National Cancer Institute. She continued researching sipunculan worms in her retirement. and advised over thirty postdoctoral fellows and eight short-term graduate fellows. She served as a committee member for thirteen doctoral candidates.

Rice was also responsible for the creation of the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystem Exhibit . Working with nearby officials, she developed the St. Lucie County Marine Center, a county-run facility where the exhibit is housed. Located opposite the Smithsonian Marine Station, the focal point of the exhibit is an enormous 3,300-gallon coral reef aquarium that was previously displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

Publications Rice's first publication, “The influence of glycolytic factors on the potassium and sodium content of Saccaromyces cerevisiae”, was co-written in 1951 with G. T. Scott and M. A. Jacobson. It concerned the physiological effects of sodium on yeast.

Honors and awards Rice served as president of the American Society of Zoologists and the American Microscopical Society. She was also an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.