Lois H. Tiffany facts for kids
Lois Hattery Tiffany (1924–2009) was a scientist who studied fungi. She taught for over 50 years at Iowa State University (ISU). People knew her as "Iowa's mushroom lady."
Lois won many awards. She was the first person to receive the Weston Award from the Mycological Society of America. She also got the Iowa Governor’s Medal for Science Teaching. She wrote about many parts of fungal life. Her special research was on the fungi found in Iowa's prairies.
Early Life and School
Lois Hattery was born on March 8, 1924. Her hometown was near Collins, Iowa. Her parents were Charles and Blanche Hattery.
She went to Iowa State College. This school is now Iowa State University. She earned a bachelor's degree in botany in 1945. Botany is the study of plants. She then got her master's degree in 1947. Her Ph.D. in mycology followed in 1950. She earned all her degrees from the same university.
In 1945, she married Fremont Henry (Hank) Tiffany. They had three children: Ray, David, and Jean.
Science Work
Lois Tiffany started teaching in 1950. Her first job was at Iowa State College. She was an instructor in the Botany and Plant Pathology Department. At first, the university did not want to pay her much. This was because she was a woman. But she kept working hard.
She became a full professor in 1965. She also led the department for six years, from 1990 to 1996. She was the first woman at ISU to be called a Distinguished Professor. This happened in 1994.
She taught many courses about fungi at ISU. She also taught at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. Her main fungi course was thought to be the best in the country.
Lois Tiffany wrote over 100 science papers. She also wrote several books about fungi. She studied fungi found in soil. She also looked at fungi that cause plant diseases. She researched poisons made by fungi, called mycotoxins. She also studied morel mushrooms and lichens.
People called her the "Renaissance woman of mycological research." This means she knew a lot about all the main types of fungi. She was very interested in Iowa prairie fungi. She studied their diseases and how they changed with the environment. For example, she looked at how fires affected them. Her work on prairie fungi was very special.
She also did long-term studies on Iowa morel mushrooms. She studied fungi in Big Bend National Park too. Her work made Big Bend one of the few national parks with so much fungi research. She helped write the book Mushrooms and Other Fungi of the Mid-Continental United States (2008).
Tiffany helped organize the university's fungi collection. She added her own collection to it. She gave over 8,000 fungi samples to the university.
Lois also taught people outside the university. She gave talks and led trips for people who liked to find mushrooms. She also led trips with the university's Botany Club. These trips went to national and state parks. Because of this public work, she became known as "Iowa's mushroom lady." Many people she taught later helped protect Iowa's grasslands, called savannas.
Tiffany was a member of the American Phytopathological Society. She was also part of the Iowa Academy of Science. She was the first woman president of the Iowa Academy of Science in 1977–78. She was on the board for the science journal Mycopathologia. The Iowa governor also asked her to join the State Preserves Advisory Board.
She officially retired from the university in 2002. But she kept a small lab and taught until 2005. Lois Tiffany passed away on September 6, 2009, in Ames, Iowa.
Awards and How She is Remembered
Lois Tiffany received many awards during her life. In 1980, she got the first W. H. Weston Award. This award was for excellent teaching about fungi. She also received the first Iowa Governor’s Medal for Science Teaching in 1982.
Other awards included the Distinguished Iowa Scientist Award (1982). She also got the ISU Regents Award for Faculty (1990). In 2009, she received an Honorary Outstanding Career Award. She also got several awards for her service to science groups. In 1991, she was added to the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.
Lois Tiffany studied truffles found in Iowa. Because of her work, a type of truffle from the Mediterranean was named after her. It is called Mattirolomyces tiffanyae.
After she passed away, a special stone with her name was placed at ISU. It is in the Plaza of Heroines. This plaza is at the entrance to the Center for Women and Politics.
In 2013, the Nature Conservancy named some land after her. It was a new piece of prairie land in northwest Iowa. They called it the Dr. Lois Tiffany Prairie. It is an 80-acre area in the Glacial Hills of Little Sioux Valley.
Iowa State University keeps Lois Tiffany's papers.
