Abbott, Isabella Aiona (Izzy)   (1919 - 2010)

Born Isabella Kauakea Yau Yung Aiona in Hana, Maui, Territory of Hawaii, on June 20, 1919; died on October 28, 2010 at her home in Honolulu, Hawaii, (aged 91).

Her Hawaiian name means "white rain of Hana" and she was known as "Izzy". Her father was ethnically Chinese while her mother was a Native Hawaiian.

She grew up in Honolulu near Waikiki, and graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1937.

She received her undergraduate degree in botany at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in 1941,a master's degree in botany from the University of Michigan in 1942, and a Doctor of Philosophy in botany from the University of California, Berkeley in 1950.

She married zoologist Donald Putnam Abbott (1920-1986), who had been a fellow student at the University of Hawai'i as well as Berkeley.

The couple moved to Pacific Grove, California where her husband taught at the Hopkins Marine Station run by Stanford University.

Since at that time women were rarely considered for academic posts, she spent time raising her daughter Annie, while studying the algae of the California coast.

In 1956 she became a research associate and taught as a lecturer at Hopkins.

She compiled a book on marine algae of the Monterey peninsula, which later was expanded to include all of the California coast.

By 1972, Stanford University promoted her directly to full professor of Biology, where she was the first woman and first person of color in this position.

In 1982 both Abbotts retired and moved back to Hawaii, where she was hired by the University of Hawaii to teach ethnobotany.

She authored eight books and over 150 publications.

She appears to have visited Australia on a regular basis from the 1940s to 2013, often collecting in association with Gerald Kraft.

Source: Extracted from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Abbott
Portrait Photo: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2010/12/isabella-abbott-world-renowned-stanford-algae-expert-dies-91

Collecting localities for 'Abbott, I.A.' from AVH (2026)

Data from 670 specimens