Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Katharine Jeannette Bush (1855–1937), Ph.D.

Second from left, back row (Rossiter, 1982)

Katharine Bush was a marine biologist. She was a special student in the Sheffield Scientific School and became the first woman Ph.D. in zoology at Yale (1901). She served at Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History as Assistant (1879–1913). Her dissertation contained descriptions of three new genera and sixteen new species belonging to the tribe Sabellides and Serpulides. Her main research was on the taxonomy and systematic classification of marine invertebrates. While working at the Peabody Museum, she was also an Assistant of the U.S. Fish Commission (1881–1888).