Valerie May

Valerie May (8 May 1916 – 27 June 2007) was an Australian phycologist, a pioneer and noted expert on toxic algae and water quality, and an interdisciplinary scientist who undertook algal ecology studies in Australia.

Education Valerie Margaret Beresford May was the daughter of Herbert Walter and Beatrice Adele (née James) May. She commenced a chemistry degree at University of Sydney but changed to botany after taking it as a subsidiary course. She graduated with first class B. Sc. in 1936, having been awarded all the botany prizes during her studies. She was awarded M.Sc. in 1939 for a primarily self-taught study of algae, that had become her main interest. During her master's degree she had reviewed and assembled information from previous studies on algae, making this prior literature much more accessible. The topics were the life history of Ectocarpus and developing keys to the green and brown marine algae. The almost complete absence of phycology from academic study in Australia gave this work added significance. However, when she married in 1940 she was told that this funding would cease.

She therefore took up a post with CSIRO in the Fisheries Division at Cronulla in Sydney.

She was awarded an honorary research associate of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney in 1987.

The National Museum of Australia holds the Valerie Jones collection of microscope slides, mounted specimens and the microscope with its wooden case that she used from 1940 to 1990.

Publications She was author or co-author of a large number of publications. These include:

May, Valerie (1982) The use of epiphytic algae to indicate environmental changes. Australian Journal of Ecology 7 101-102

May, Valerie (1981) The Occurrence of Toxic Cyanophyte Blooms in Australia. Chapter in: The Water Environment:Algal Toxins and Health. eds Wayne W. Carmichael, SpringerLink pp 127–142

May, Valerie, Bennett, Isobel & T. E. Thompson (1970) Herbivore-Algal relationships on a coastal rock platform (Cape Banks, N.S.W.) Oecologia 6 1–14