María de los Ángeles Alvariño González facts for kids

María de los Ángeles Alvariño González (born October 3, 1916 – died May 29, 2005), also known as Ángeles Alvariño, was a Spanish scientist who studied fish and the ocean. She was known around the world for her knowledge of tiny ocean creatures called plankton. She was the very first woman scientist to work on research ships for both the British and Spanish navies.

Ángeles Alvariño discovered 22 new types of marine animals. She also wrote over 100 scientific books and articles. Later in her career, she studied the history of early ocean exploration.

Early Life and Studies

María de los Ángeles Alvariño Gonzalez was born in Serantes, Ferrol, Galicia, Spain, on October 3, 1916. Her father, Antonio Alvariño Grimaldos, was a doctor. Her mother was Maria del Carmen Gonzales Diaz-Saavedra de Alvariño.

From a young age, Ángeles loved natural sciences. She enjoyed reading her father's books about animals. She went to school in Ferrol and then to the University of Santiago de Compostela. She graduated with top honors in 1933.

In 1934, she started studying Natural Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. However, she had to stop her studies because of the Spanish Civil War. During this time, she learned English and French, which helped her a lot in her later research career in the United States.

In 1940, she married Eugenio Leira Manso, a captain in the Spanish Navy. Two years later, their daughter, Maria de los Angeles Leira Alvariño, was born. Her daughter later became a famous architect.

After the war, Ángeles Alvariño finished her studies. In 1941, she earned her master's degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Madrid. From 1941 to 1948, she taught biology, zoology, botany, and geology in Ferrol.

In 1948, she moved back to Madrid to work as a fishery research biologist. At that time, an old Spanish law stopped women from going on Spanish naval ships. But because Ángeles was so smart and had great grades, she was allowed to take courses and do research at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography. In 1951, she earned another diploma in Experimental Psychology, Analytical Chemistry, and Plant Ecology.

In 1950, she moved to Galicia and worked at the Spanish Oceanographic Institute in Vigo. In 1953, she received a special scholarship to study plankton in England. She worked with famous zooplankton experts, Frederick S. Russell and Peter C. Corbin.

Zooplankton are tiny floating animals in the ocean. They are food for many other sea creatures. Ángeles Alvariño focused on three groups:

• Chaetognatha: These are small, carnivorous (meat-eating) worms.
• Siphonophores: These are groups of tiny animals that live together, like the Portuguese man o' war.
• Medusa: These are jellyfish.

By studying plankton in the English Channel, she found unusual patterns. This led to a scientific discovery that Atlantic waters had moved north in a strange way. María de los Ángeles Alvariño was the first woman scientist to work on a British research ship. Throughout her life, she joined many scientific trips on ships from England, America, Spain, and Mexico.

In 1954, Alvariño returned to Spain. She designed special nets and worked with fishermen and naval ships to collect plankton samples. She collected samples from the Atlantic Ocean near Spain and Newfoundland, and from the Mediterranean Sea.

Research in the United States

In 1956, María de los Ángeles received a special grant called a Fulbright fellowship. This allowed her to do scientific work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, USA. There, she worked with Dr. Mary Sears, who was also a zooplankton researcher.

Dr. Mary Sears was very impressed with Ángeles's research. She recommended her to Dr. Roger Revelle, the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 1958, Ángeles Alvariño was offered a job as a biologist at Scripps, which is part of the University of California, San Diego.

She worked at UCSD from 1958 to 1969. During this time, she studied zooplankton off the coast of California and in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. She discovered 12 new species of chaetognatha, nine new siphonophores, and one new jellyfish. She also created a map showing where different species of chaetognatha and siphonophores live around the world. This research became the basis for her PhD, which she received from the University of Madrid in 1967.

In 1970, she became a Fisheries Research Biologist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. This center is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Here, she continued her research on chaetognatha and siphonophores. She also studied how these predatory animals affect the survival of baby fish. She looked at how plankton move, especially how pollution or ship movements might introduce new plankton species to different areas.

In the late 1970s, Alvariño helped organize ocean research among countries in Latin America. She also studied the Antarctic. She received grants from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UNESCO.

She retired as an Emeritus Scientist in 1993 but kept doing research on ships from different countries. Towards the end of her life, Ángeles Alvariño focused on the history of early scientific ocean exploration. She studied the discoveries of early Spanish explorers and sailors who first mapped the oceans and their currents. She wrote a detailed account of the Malaspina Expedition, which was the first scientific ocean expedition that traveled across the western Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from 1789 to 1794.

Ángeles Alvariño also taught at several universities. She directed the research of many students working on their PhDs. When she passed away in San Diego, California, on May 29, 2005, she left behind a finished book about the birds and marine animals found during the Malaspina Expedition. Her daughter is working to complete and translate this project.

Discoveries and Recognition

Ángeles Alvariño discovered 22 new species of marine animals during her career. She carefully drew and described them at different stages of their lives. She was an expert in Jellyfish, Siphonophorae, Chaetognatha, and Hydrozoa.

Two plankton species are named after her:

• Aidanosagitta alvarinoae (an arrow worm)
• Lizzia alvarinoae (a jellyfish)

She was a member of many important scientific groups, including the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists.

In 1993, Ángeles Alvariño received the Great Silver Medal of Galicia from King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia of Spain. This was a huge honor for her amazing scientific work. In 2005, a university in Spain dedicated its Week of Sciences to her. The city of Ferrol also honored her with a special plaque at a university campus.

The government of Galicia now offers special postdoctoral fellowships named "Ánxeles Alvariño Postdoctoral Fellowships" to support new scientists.

A research vessel (a scientific ship) of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography is named "Ángeles Alvariño" in her honor. Her daughter, Maria de los Angeles Leira Alvariño, launched the ship in 2012.

On October 3, 2021, Google created a special picture called a Doodle for its homepage in many countries. This celebrated Dr. Ángeles Alvariño's 105th birthday.

Species Discovered by Ángeles Alvariño

Here are some of the species she described as new:

• Sagitta bierii Alvariño, 1961; a chaetognath (now called Serratosagitta bierii)
• Sagitta euneritica Alvariño, 1961; a chaetognath (now called Parasagitta euneritica)
• Sagitta scrippsae Alvariño, 1962; a chaetognath (now called Pseudosagitta lyra)
• Eukrohnia bathypelagica Alvariño, 1962; a chaetognath
• Sagitta bruuni Alvariño, 1967; a chaetognath (now called Zonosagitta bruuni)
• Sagitta nagae Alvariño, 1967; a chaetognath (now called Zonosagitta nagae)
• Sagitta tokiokai Alvariño, 1967; a chaetognath (now called Ferosagitta robusta)
• Vogtia kuruae Alvariño, 1967; a siphonophore (now called Vogtia serrata)
• Enneanogonum searsae Alvariño, 1968; a siphonophore (now called Enneagonum hyalinum)
• Sulculeolaria brintoni Alvariño, 1968; a siphonophore (now called Sulculeolaria quadrivalvis)
• Krohnitta mutabbii Alvariño, 1969; a chaetognath (now called Krohnitta pacifica)
• Spadella hummelinck Alvariño, 1970; a chaetognath (now called Paraspadella pulchella)
• Spadella gaetanoi Alvariño, 1978; a chaetognath
• Spadella legazpichessi Alvariño, 1981; a chaetognath (now called Paraspadella legazpichessi)
• Nectocarmen antonioi Alvariño, 1983; a siphonophore (now called Praya dubia)
• Heteropyramis alcala Alvariño, 1983; a siphonophore (now called Heteropyramis maculata)
• Thalassophyes ferrarii Alvariño, 1983; a siphonophore (now called Crystallophyes amygdalina)
• Lensia eltanin Alvariño, 1984; a siphonophore (now called Lensia achilles)
• Lensia landrumae Alvariño, 1984; a siphonophore (now called Lensia hunter)
• Lensia eugenioi Alvariño, 1985; a siphonophore (now called Lensia campanella)
• Spadella pimukatharos Alvariño, 1987; a chaetognath
• Pandea cybeles Alvariño, 1988; a medusozoa

See also

In Spanish: Ángeles Alvariño para niños