Person

Stone, Ilma Grace (1913 - 2001)

Born
11 June 1913
Brunswick, Victoria, Australia
Died
4 January 2001
Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Bryologist and Botanist
Alternative Names
  • Balfe, Ilma Grace (maiden name)

Summary

Ilma Stone was a brilliant scholar. She was dux of her school at age 16 and completed a Master of Science (Botany) at the University of Melbourne by the age of 20. Her Masters dissertation was on disease - producing fungi in ornamental plants and was published in 1935. Ilma married Alan Stone in 1936 and spent the next 20 years away from research, raising her family.

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Details

In 1957, at the age of 44, Ilma Stone returned to botanical research. First she worked as a part-time demonstrator and researcher at the University of Melbourne. After completing her PhD in 1963, she was appointed to a full-time position. Stone's research concentrated on Australian ferns and then mosses. In 1976 the book The Mosses of Southern Australia was released and is still the only book to specialize in Australian mosses. It took Stone and Dr George Scott around five years to write.

Stone retired in 1978, after which she was made Senior Associate and later Associate Professor of the Department of Botany at the University of Melbourne. Of her 70 published papers, 11 were written while Stone was in her 80s. Several genera and species of moss have been named in her honour (e.g. Stonea and Stoneobryum) and was made an honorary member of the British Bryological Society in 1982. The principal repository of her collections, approximately 15,000 specimens, is the National Herbarium of Victoria.

Chronology

1934
Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Melbourne
1957 - 1978
Career position - Demonstrator (later Associate Professor), Department of Botany, University of Melbourne
1963
Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Melbourne
1978
Life event - Retired
1982 - 2001
Award - Honorary Member, British Bryological Society
1989
Education - Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Melbourne

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

  • McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Books

  • Scott, George A. M.; and Stone, Ilma G.: illustrations by Rosser, Celia, The Mosses of Southern Australia (London: New York: Academic Press, 1976), 495 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Beever, Jessica E., 'A Tribute - Ilma G Stone 1913-2001', Australasian Bryological Newsletter, 43 (2001), 2-5. Details
  • Brown, Gillian, 'Mosses, liverworts and hornworts: significant bryophyte collections at the University of Melbourne Herbarium', University of Melbourne Collections, 8 (2011), -7. Details
  • Dalton, P. J. (editor), ' A special issue in honour of Ilma Grace Stone to commemorate the occasion of her 80th birthday', Australasian bryological newsletter 29:1-8, 29, 1-8. https://www.utas.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/766457/ABN_29.pdf. Details
  • Scott, G. A. M. [and others], 'A special issue in honour of Ilma Grace Stone to commemorate the occasion of her 80th birthday', Australasian bryological newsletter, 29 (1993), 1-8. Details
  • Seppelt, R. D.; Beever, J. E.; and Milne, J., 'Obituary: Ilma Grace Stone (1913-2001)', Journal of Bryology, 24 (2) (2002), 173-5. Details
  • Stone, Ilma G.; Bell, Graham; and Scott, George A. M., 'Recollections and a tribute to Professor David Guthrie Catcheside, 31 May 1907 - 1 June 1994', Australasian bryological newsletter, 31 (1994), 7-11. https://www.utas.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/766459/ABN_31.pdf. Details
  • Stoneburger, Ann; Wyatt, Robert; Catcheside, David G.; and Stone, Ilma G., 'Census of the mosses of Western Australia', Bryologist, 96 (1) (1993), 86-101. Details

Newspaper Articles

  • Stone, Claire, 'Obituary: Dr Ilma Grace Stone (nee Balfe), Expert on Australian mosses', The Age (2001). Details

Resources

See also

  • Franks, Andrew J., 'A brief history of bryological exploration in Queensland', Queensland naturalist, 58 (4/6) (2020), 25-47. Details

Ailie Smith & Annette Alafaci

Created: 25 November 2003, Last modified: 13 September 2022

EOAS ID: biogs/P004511b.htm

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