Vivienne Cassie Cooper

Una Vivienne Cassie Cooper (née Dellow; 29 September 1926 – 5 July 2021) was a New Zealand planktologist and botanist.

Early life Cassie Cooper was born on 29 September 1926 in the Auckland suburb of Epsom to Annie Eveline Bell and her husband, Kenneth Dellow. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Auckland University College, and her PhD from Victoria University College. and has had six algae named after her: the brown alga Ectocarpus dellowianus, the dinoflagellate Gymnodinium cassieorum, and four diatoms, Fragilariforma cassieae, Frustulia cassieae, Gomphoneis minuta var. cassieae and Navicula cassieana. In the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to marine biology. She was described as New Zealand's "leading expert" on diatoms.

Cassie Cooper was a founding member of the Australasian Society for Phycology and Aquatic Botany, the International Society of Diatomists, and the Asian Pacific Phycological Association.

Personal life In 1953, she married Richard Morrison Cassie, a fellow professor at the University of Auckland. They had two children. He died in 1974.

Death Cassie Cooper died on 5 July 2021.