Blackwood, Margaret   (1909 - 1986)

Born on 26 April 1909 in South Yarra, Melbourne, VIC, died on 1 June 1986 in Melbourne, VIC.

Her parents were Robert Leslie Blackwood and Muriel Pearl (née Henry), both teachers.

She attended Melbourne Girls Grammar School and, after qualifying as a teacher, taught at Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School and Korowa Anglican Girls' School.

She enrolled at the University of Melbourne in 1934 and studied part-time, continuing to teach to support herself. She completed a Bachelor of Science in 1938 and a Master of Science in botany in 1939.

Her postgraduate research focused on dieback in the pine species Pinus radiata.

From 1939 until 1941, she was a research scholar and demonstrator at the university in the field of plant cytology and genetics.

In WW2 she enrolled in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in 1941 and was eventualy promoted to the rank of Wing Officer before being discharged in January 1946.

Blackwood returned to the University of Melbourne upon her discharge, as a biology lecturer and dean of women.

She was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge's Newnham College from 1948 to 1950. There, she studied the genetics of maize with David Catcheside and received a doctorate for her work in 1954.

She returned to the University of Melbourne in 1951 as a senior lecturer in botany and received a travelling scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin in 1958 and a research fellowship at the University of Birmingham in 1959.

After being promoted to reader (professor), she retired from academia in 1974.

Blackwood died in 1986, three years after retiring as deputy chancellor of the University of Melbourne.

Blackwood was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1964 and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981.

In 1989, a new species of the fungi genus Phyllosticta, P. blackwoodiae, was described and named after her.

Source: Extracted from:
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/blackwood-dame-margaret-12218
Portrait Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Blackwood.

Collecting localities for 'Blackwood, M.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 74 specimens