Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Estelle Bergere Leopold, Ph.D.

Photo: http://depts.washington.edu/pollen

Estella Leopold is a botanist who received her Ph.D. at Yale in 1955. She is known as a paleoecologist, conservationist, and philanthropist. She held a leadership role in the establishment of the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado, leading to their becoming a National Monument. She is the third of the Leopold siblings to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1974). She continues to work a few days a week at her laboratory on the University of Washington campus, where she researches palynology, the study of fossil pollen, as a tool in reconstructing ancient floras.