{{Short description|Dutch botanist (1912–2009)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Alberta Mennega | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =File:Alberta Mennega.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 14 August 1912 | birth_place = Nijmegen | death_date = {{death date and age text|20 December 2009|14 August 1912}} | death_place = Doorn | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | fields = Botany | workplaces = Utrecht University | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = Utrecht University | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot =Mennega | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = | children = | signature = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }} '''Alberta Maria Wilhelmina "Bep" Mennega''' (29 July 1912 – 20 December 2009) was a Dutch botanist renowned for her studies into the anatomy of wood and plant systematics. {{botanist|Mennega|inline=yes}}
==Biography== Mennega studied biology at the Utrecht University, earning her Ph.D in 1938.<ref name=staf>Stafleu, F. A., Cowan, R. S., & Mennega, E. A. (1979). [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33355503#page/432/mode/1up Taxonomic literature: A selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types.] Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema.</ref> In 1946, she accepted a position at the Utrecht University Botanic Gardens. The university was in need of people who were able to assess the quality of imported wood, and although her educational background was in physiology, she was retrained in wood anatomy.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mennega|first1=A.M.W.|title=Wood anatomy of the subfamily Euphorbioideae.|journal=IAWA Journal|volume=26|issue=1|pages=1–68|year=2005}}</ref> While working at the university, she started a world renowned wood collection.<ref name=found>[https://www.alberta-mennega-stichting.nl/bep.html Alberta Mennega Stichting (Dutch)]</ref> Mennega's research also contributed significately to the flora of Suriname.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Waard|first=J. Florschütz-De|year=1966|title=Flora of Suriname|publisher=Brill Archive.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cUNCAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>
Mennega retired from the university in 1977. In 1988, she founded the Alberta Mennega Foundation as a scholarship for students and researchers in the field of botany, prioritizing the funding of fieldwork in the tropics.<ref name=found/>
Botanist Erik Albert Mennega was Mennega's nephew.<ref name=staf/>
==Honors== In 2007, Mennega was awarded as a knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.<ref name=found/>
The genus ''Mennegoxylon'' and the species ''Salacia mennegana'' were named in her honor.<ref name="Hueber">{{cite journal|last=Hueber|first=F.M. |author2=E.M.V. Nambudiri |author3=W.D. Tidwell |author4=E.F. Wheeler|year= 1991|title= An Eocene fossil tree with cambial variant wood structure|journal= Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology|url= http://www.hgms.org/Paleo/Snakewood.pdf|publisher= Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.|location= Amsterdam|volume= 68|pages= 257–267|doi=10.1016/0034-6667(91)90027-z }}</ref><ref>Lombardi, J. A. (2009). Three New Species of Salacia from Mesoamerica (Celastraceae, Salacioideae). Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature, 19(3), 372-379. doi:10.3417/2007005 </ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{plantlist|Mennega}} *[https://www.alberta-mennega-stichting.nl/Index-UK.html Alberta Mennega Foundation]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mennega, Alberta}} Category:1914 births Category:2009 deaths Category:20th-century Dutch botanists Category:Dutch women botanists Category:Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau