Patricia Mather

Patricia Mather (née Kott) (12 December 1925 – 4 January 2012) was an Australian zoologist and taxonomist known for her research into sea squirts. She became a leader in Australian marine science and achieved international status through her work on the Ascidiacea. She has published (under her maiden name, Patricia Kott) more than 150 papers including a major monograph on the "Australian Ascidiacea" (in four parts between 1985 and 2001).

Early life Patricia Mather (born Patricia Kott) on 12 December 1925 in Perth was raised and educated in Western Australia. She received an early introduction into marine science during holiday jobs sorting plankton at the CSIR (later to become the CSIRO) Fisheries Division.

After graduating from the University of Western Australia in 1948 with a B.Sc. first-class honours degree she was appointed plankton officer in the Fisheries Division at Cronulla, New South Wales. After completing her MSc in 1949 she was made a CSIR overseas student and studied in England at the University College (London University) doing a course on invertebrates. She also studied the ascidian collections in the British Natural History Museum. Patricia then went on to continue studies at the Marine Biological Association Laboratory in Plymouth.

Upon her return to Australia in 1951 and work with the CSIRO as a plankton officer, she became focused on the taxonomy of the ascidiacea. a lecturer at the University of Queensland in 1955

Waldo Schmitt from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., asked her to write a monograph on Antarctic ascidiacea located in the American national collections in the mid-1960s. Upon completion of this work she returned to Australia. She earnt her DSc. from the University of Western Australia in 1970. 1992 Officer of the Order of Australia Whitley award - best book on science history. Time for a museum: a history of the Queensland Museum (1986) Whitley award – best book on natural history. The coral reef handbook (1993) with Isobel Bennett.

Legacy Patricia Mather died on 4 January 2012, in Brisbane, Queensland and was survived by her three sons and six grandsons. A street is named for her in the Dutton Park Biosciences Precinct – Patricia Mather Place.

Partial listing of publications

Taxa named by Patricia Kott