Anna.sinik

CAREER

After she earned her PH.D, it happened to be the time of the Great Depression which caused her to stay unemployed due to the lack of working opportunities. However, at the same time, some seashells she bought from a curio shop in Berkeley dre her attention and during a trip to Monterey she found more. After being aware of Ida Oldroyd’s research on seashells, she decided to work voluntarily at Stanford with her supervisor Dr. Hubert Schenk, a Stanford palaeontologist. She said since then, she was finally under the tutelage of someone who could provide her the academic instructions she truly desired.

She did her voluntary job for four years before she got paid in 1937. Also she was conferred a unique title as Curator of Palaeontology.

ACIEVEMENTS

In the beginning of Keen's studies, she was given a fellowship and a scholarship for her intelligence at Stanford (1931)

Myra Keen was given the role of president of the American Malacological Union, and was then graciously awarded for her honour shortly after in 1948

The Guggenheim Fellowship , also known as the "mid career award", is open to numerous citizens in the United States, Canada and a few other countries. The ones to be recognized for their great demonstrations within their preferred source of research, Keen's being Natural Sciences. Keen was awarded as a fellow in 1964.

As of 1984, Myra Keen was lucky enough to achieve a citation from the College of Colorado for her personal studies in Natural Sciences as well as her fantastic discoveries within living Mollusks and fossils. To follow her special citation, Keen also has the recognition of 40 Mollusks named after her.

The medal of California Academy of Sciences was awarded to Myra Keen, fellow, in 1979 for her well thought out contributions

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Myra Keen was born on May 23, 1905 in Colorado Springs, Colorado to parents Ernest Byron and Mary Thurston Keen. Keen attended the Colorado College and graduated in 1930 with a degree in psychology. Shortly after she decided to continue her education when she won a fellowship to Stanford University in 1931, completing her Masters. Keen went on to complete her PhD in psychology, attending the University of California, Berkley in 1934.

Myra Keen first began her interest in geology when she discovered sea shells at a small bookshop in Monterey, California. The discovery of these sea shells sparked Keen's interest in Malacology, and she spent the following summer in Monterey collecting different specimens and sea shells. Myra eventually was able to contact Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, where she met Ida Oldroyd. Oldroyd at the time was the curator of shell collections at Stanford University, and through their interactions is where Keen's career and legacy in geology began to take off.

DEATH AND RETIREMENT

After retirement, Myra Keen was still actively involved in the lives of her students and colleagues. Also, she was engaged in "Quakers'', officially the Religious Society of Friends. As an active member, her great talent always calmed people down and made them relaxed. Even though she could no longer continue to pursue her own career, Keen continued to review the manuscripts of her colleagues, and keep in touch with her former students. Keen's collection of fossils and mollusks she curated were transferred to the California Academy of Sciences. She was never married. When be asked why she did so, she said, she actually looked forward to getting married one day, with the right person she expected. But she never had the chance to seek for the right person because she was obsessed with what she was doing. After her battle with her failing eyesight and arthritis, She Myra Keen passed away at age 80, on January 4, 1986 as a result of cancer.

Keen is acknowledged by Stanford as being key in paving the way for women's advancements at the university. As a student and professor, she experienced sexism. She was active in the campus group, The Women of the Faculty, which was the answer to Stanford's Men's Faculty Club. The group met monthly, sharing achievements and experiences. Keen served as the group's historian, and was the group's third chairman from 1958 to 1960.[1]

Geology Contributions Myra went from volunteering as a shell examiner with no formal geology training, to a well known geologist in her later years. As a teenager, Myra enjoyed photography and nuturalism. These interests ultimately affected her future career as a decorated geologist. Myra's first field of study was phsycology, but a lack of jobs in this field forced her to continue as a volunteer shell examiner. This undoubtable planted the seed in her interest in geology in the future. Her career choice was especially interesting as Myra only took 1 geology course in college. She later went on to be the first women to teach geology. After 18 years of being a curator and lecturer, she was offered a professorship at Stanford. This made her one of 3 women teaching science at this university. Although Myra did not have a degree in palaeontology, in 1936 she became Stanford's curator of palaeontology. When Myra retired in 1970, she was a member of the Geological Society of America. In 1979, she was given the Fellow Medal from California Academy of Sciences. This made her the first women to receive this award. By the end of her career she had written a plethora of books and journal articles. Included in her works works is one of the most significant collections of mollusk shells in the US. These mollusk systematics were a focus of her career long research. While at Stanford she helped with the organization and cataloging of the Cenozoic mollusks.