Education
She attended University of Amsterdam in 1880, made to do her laboratory work in a room separate from the male students.
She attended University of Amsterdam in 1880, made to do her laboratory work in a room separate from the male students.
Her interest in botany and zoology started at a young age, inspired by regular trips to the Amsterdam zoo. Some of her greatest work comes from the Siboga Expedition, considered the most important expedition for marine phycology in the western Pacific for the nineteenth century. These travels brought about numerous discoveries, including entire new genera of algae, such as Periphykon, Exophyllum, and Microphyllum.
Much of her discoveries from this trip are documented in her monograph Corallinaceae(1904), and her four-volume Liste des algues du Siboga(1913-1928).
Some of her discoveries came during earlier expeditions to northern Norway and the East Indies. She discovered the genus Phytophysa and a form of symbiosis between algae and sponges before she left for Sigoba.
Much of her later work was done in her small home laboratory Huis Eerbeek, where several botanists would visit for consultation. Outside of marine biology, she worked with community child-care centers in Amsterdam.
She died on October 29, 1942 at the age of 90.