Years: 

1906–95

Year Hutchinson Medal awarded:

1988

Pioneering botanist, taxonomist, professor, conservation advocate and leader in ecotourism.

Mildred E. Mathias was an American botanist, taxonomist, professor, conservation advocate, and pioneering ecotourism leader, best known for her work on the carrot family (Apiaceae/Umbelliferae), her global plant exploration, and her major contributions to botanical education at UCLA.

Early Life and Education

Mildred Esther Mathias was born September 19, 1906, in Sappington, Missouri, a rural farming community near St. Louis. Originally intending to study mathematics, Mathias switched to botany when certain math courses were restricted to men. She earned her A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. in systematic botany at Washington University in St. Louis. Her doctoral research, completed by age 22, was a major taxonomic revision of Cymopterus and related carrot-family genera.

Career and Research Contributions

Mathias held research roles at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, and the University of California, Berkeley, where she joined Lincoln Constance, Ph.D., in long-term collaborative work on the carrot family (Umbelliferae/Apiaceae). From 1940 to 1981, Mathias and Constance co-authored more than 60 scientific papers, describing roughly 100 new species, numerous new combinations, and several new genera. In 1954, an umbellifer from northeastern Mexico was named Mathiasella in her honor. She became one of the world’s foremost authorities on the carrot family, publishing more than 100 scientific articles and books on the group.

UCLA Career and Public Education

Mathias joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she was a botanist and professor (1955–74). She also served as vice chair of the Botany Department until 1962 and director of the UCLA Botanical Garden from 1956 to 1974. Today it is named the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden in her honor.

She reached large public audiences through a weekly NBC gardening television program, The Wonderful World of Ornamentals, which she co-hosted.

Plant Exploration, Ecotourism, and Conservation

Mathias conducted botanical fieldwork worldwide, traveling in North and South America, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Her work helped popularize an early form of ecotourism, which she used as a means of public botanical education.

She helped establish the University of California Natural Reserve System (NRS)—one of the most important protected research-reserve networks in the world—ensuring permanent protection of California’s diverse habitats for scientific study.

Mathias was also deeply involved in tropical conservation, co-founding the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) and helping to preserve lands in Costa Rica.

After retiring in 1974, she continued leading field courses and ecotourism trips, ultimately guiding 53 international expeditions to over 30 countries—her last at age 88.