Elke Mackenzie
British polar explorer and botanist (1911-1990) · United Kingdom · On the map · Scientists · Died at 78
Elke Mackenzie was a British polar explorer and botanist who specialised in the field of lichenology. Beginning her education in Edinburgh, Scotland, Mackenzie later pursued botany at the University of Edinburgh, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1933 and a Doctor of Science in 1942.
Elke Mackenzie is read about 12 times a day, in 6 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 25 August 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?Media & music
Photos 6
Operation Tabarin. Base A, Port Lockroy; photographed by Mackenzie in 1945
Isotype of Buellia russa var. cycloplaca from Trinity Peninsula; collected by Mackenzie in 1945
Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany
MacKenzie never finished her magnum opus: a worldwide monograph on the lichen genus Stereocaulon. Shown is Stereocaulon alpinum, widely distributed in the Antarctic.
Placopsis lambii is one of several species named in honour of Mackenzie.About this person
In the two years she was involved in Operation Tabarin, a covert World War II mission to Antarctica, she identified and documented many lichen species, several of them previously unknown to science.
