Президиум и Ученый совет Санкт-Петербургского общества естествоиспытателей получили глубоко печальную новость в том, что профессор Мэри Э. Райс, обладательница Медали Ковалевского 2019 года, скончалась 29 апреля 2021 года после тяжелой болезни.
Профессор Мэри Э. Райс была президентом Американского общества зоологов и Американского общества микроскопии. Она также была избранным членом Американской ассоциации развития науки. В 2019 году за выдающиеся достижения в эволюционной биологии развития и сравнительной зоологии Мэри Э. Райс была награждена Медалью А.О. Ковалевского Санкт-Петербургского общества естествоиспытателей.
Necrologue of Professor Mary E. Rice
The Presidium and Academic Council of St. Petersburg Naturalist Society learned with deep sadness that Professor Mary E. Rice, the 2019 winner of the Kowalevsky Medal, died on April 29, 2021 after a serious illness.
Mary E. Rice was born in Washington, D.C. on August 3, 1926. In 1966, Rice received her doctorate in zoology at the University of Washington, Seattle, studying the development and phylogeny of sipunculan worms. Since 1966 Rice was appointed Curator and Research Zoologist in the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Invertebrate Zoology. In charge of curating the sipunculan and echiuran collections, Rice devoted her career to the study of Sipuncula, focusing her research on their evolution and development.
In 1981, Rice became Director of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida. When she retired in 2002 after thirty-six years at the Smithsonian Institution, Rice was named Senior Research Scientist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Marine Station. She continues researching sipunculan worms in her retirement.
Professor Rice has 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. In 2019 she was awarded the A.O. Kowalevsky Medal for extraordinary achievements in evolutionary developmental biology and comparative zoology by the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists.