Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich

Tappan Loeblich earned her BS in 1937 and her Master's in 1939, both in geology from the University of Oklahoma. Her master's thesis was on mid-Cretaceous foraminifera of Oklahoma and Texas. At the University of Oklahoma, she met her future husband and long time scientific collaborator, in chemistry class, where they fell in love in 1939. Shortly thereafter they married and spent their honeymoon doing field work with their graduate advisor, in south-central Oklahoma,[4] Alfred R. Loeblich Jr.,

Leoblich received her Ph.D. in 1942 from the University of Chicago, and her dissertation continued her master's work. When her husband was drafted in 1942, Tappan Loeblich became the first female professor at Tulane University's College of Arts and Sciences. In 1953 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to allow her to take a sabbatical from her USGS appointment and travel to Europe to collect foraminifera with her husband.[2]

With her husband, Tappan Loeblich is the author of two major works on foraminiferal classification, two volumes in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part C. Protista 2 (Sarcodina, Chiefly "Thecamoebians" and Foraminiferida), Volumes 1 and 2 (1964)[2][5] by USGS and the University of Kansas and their two-volume work, Foraminiferal Genera and Their Classification, published in 1988 by Springer.[6] The Treatise classified foraminifera genera by the morphology of their external tests or shells, and Foraminferal Genera revised and refined the classification of forams by adding test internal characteristics and reviewing type specimens.[2]

Helen received many awards during her lifetime. Notable awards include the Paleontological Society Medal in 1983, the Woman of the Year Award in Natural Science from the Palm Springs Desert Museum in 1987, the Raymond C. Moore Medal for “Excellence in Paleontology” in 1984, and the 1982 Woman of Science Award from the UCLA Medical Center Auxiliary.[2]

Helen was a very important figure, not just for the Paleontology community, but for everyone around her as well. Apart from her outstanding accomplishments in Geology and Paleontology; the time she spent teaching at UCLA, she mentored and inspired numerous students. Many of whom went on pursuing and achieving prominence in geology, palynology, paleontology, and micropaleontology.[2] During her lifetime, she had also worked on numerous editorial and society boards. Helen is remembered for much of her work, but she is best remembered for her books and landmark paper, as well as her prodigious scientific output, Both as a sole author and collaborator. Helen published a total of 272 scientific papers or books mainly with her husband Alfred. One of their most notable works was their 1957 paper “Correlation of the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Paleocene and lower Eocene formations by means of planktonic Foraminifera” which won the Best Paper Award in the Journal of Paleontology.[2] Other than the paper she was also very proud of her book, “The Paleobiology of Plant Protists” (1980), and was also voted “the best non-fiction book” for that year. Helen’s publications and research were scientifically grounded and always first-rate. Apart from being an excellent writer and editor, she demanded the same level of excellence from her students and colleagues as well. Helen instilled in her students' a strong work ethic and commitment to try and be the best versions of themselves. Aside from publishing award-winning papers and books, Helen would often put her work down and help her students with their research. Helen was a very humble and soft-spoken woman who led by example. Her contributions to the community were not restricted to Paleontology or Geology but also to share her expertise and advising future students who would later continue her example and work to improve the Paleontology community in the future.[2]

Most of Loeblich's achievements were accomplished alongside her husband and fellow researcher Alfred R. Loeblich Jr., whom she met in the University of Oklahoma, during her Master of Science degree in 1939. They married on June 18th of the same year, and had four children including Alfred Richard leoblich III, who took a doctorate in botany at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.[2] Helen's husband took up a teaching post at Tulane's College of Arts and Sciences in New Orleans, and was drafted into the US military in 1942. Helen taught in his stead, and became the first woman faculty member in the faculty's history.[2]

After the war, Helen and her husband moved to Washington D.C., where they began new lines of research.[2]