Vivienne Cassie Cooper

Cassie Cooper was born in Auckland. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Auckland, and her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington.[1][2]

In 1957, she made the first regional study of phytoplankton in New Zealand. Later in life, she focused more on aquatic botany, and was appointed a research scientist on freshwater algae in the Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). In her career, she wrote over fifty papers and several books, including Marine Phytoplankton in New Zealand Waters and Checklists of the Freshwater Diatoms of New Zealand. Cooper also published Micro Algae - Microscopic Marvels which she writes to appeal to a more popular readership.[3]

Cassie Cooper has garnered several awards and titles for her accomplishments, including an honorary research associateship by the Botany Department at University of Auckland and the Botany Division of DSIR, and an honorary life membership of the New Zealand Limnological Society and the New Zealand Marine Science Society.[1][2] In the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to marine biology.[4] She was described as New Zealand's "leading expert" on diatoms.[3]

Cassie Cooper was a founding member of the Australasian Society for Phycology and Aquatic Botany, the International Society of Diatomists, and the Asian Pacific Phycological Association.[2] She retired in 1986.[3]

The standard author abbreviation Cassie is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[5]

In 1953, she married Richard Morrison Cassie, a fellow professor at the University of Auckland. They had two children. He died in 1974, but Cooper has continued her research to the present day (as of 2017).[1] She married Robert Cecil Cooper, botanist, in 1984.[6]