Diatom Herbarium Staff
Marina Potapova, Assistant Curator
Marina Potapova joined the Diatom Herbarium in January, 2008. She studies taxonomy, ecology, and biogeography of freshwater diatoms. She has extensive experience in using diatoms for water quality assessment and through that experience she came to appreciate the magnitude of the problems in diatom taxonomy. Dr. Potapova is interested in understanding the patterns of speciation in diatoms, and developing tools for their reliable identification. Her short-term goals include cataloguing diversity of the freshwater diatoms of the continental United States, developing ways of quantifying morphological characters of diatom frustule based on geometric morphometrics, and studying taxonomy and systematics of monoraphid freshwater diatoms.
(Go to Marina Potapova's personal research site.)
Charles W. Reimer, Curator Proprius
Dr. Reimer began his illustrious career at The Academy of Natural Sciences on December 1, 1952. He was originally hired by Dr. Ruth Patrick to translate books and journal articles for the flora she was planning to publish on diatoms in the United States. He later became co-author with Dr. Patrick of the product of this effort, the two-volume Diatoms of North America. He worked with Matthew Hohn and John Wallace when he started with diatoms. About this same time, Dr. Patrick began a large amount of fieldwork, so Field Algologist was added to Dr. Reimer's list of many duties. The field surveys initially involved both himself and John Wallace; later he became the only one collecting samples.
From 1960 to 1974 Dr. Reimer was an associate Curator of the Diatom Herbarium, and then in 1975 took on the full title of Curator. Dr. Reimer answered all of the requests for material or slides that came to the Herbarium. During this time he also performed his own research and found time to teach. In 1966, John Dodd, from Iowa State, invited him to develop and teach a summer course in diatoms at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory field station. The course was given each summer by Dr. Reimer until 1991. A large proportion of currently practicing freshwater diatomists took this course, learning their taxonomy and ecology under the tutelage of Dr. Reimer and others. Dr. Reimer has also taught at Drexel University in Philadelphia as an adjunct professor and at the field station of the University of Saskatchewan. He officially retired as curator in 1991, but has continued his work in the Diatom Herbarium ever since.
Ruth Patrick, Charles Boyer Chair of Limnology
Dr. Patrick's association with the Academy began in 1933 as an unpaid researcher and volunteer curator of the Microscopy Department. It was not until 1945, when she started bringing in money from clients that Dr. Patrick was hired and paid as a full-time employee of the Academy. She went on to found the Limnology Department in 1947, which she chaired for the next 25 years. The Department eventually changed its name to the Patrick Center of Environmental Resources, to honor her achievements.
Dr. Patrick has written over 175 publications, including Diatoms of the United States (co-authored with Charles Reimer) and the multi-volume Rivers of the United States. Her awards, too numerous to completely list here, include the 1996 Medal of Science Award and the prestigious John and Alice Tyler Ecology Award, given out once every ten years. She has served on numerous committees that help shape national environmental policy, and has served on several corporate and organizational boards, including those of the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, the World Wildlife Fund, and the DuPont Corporation.
See History of the Diatom Herbarium to learn more about her role the the development of the herbarium.