Rachel Carson
Showing a talent for writing from a young age, Rachel (1907 - 1964) attended the Pennsylvania College for Women, where she changed her field of study from English to Biology. After a summer position at an oceanographic institute, she gained a Master’s degree in Zoology at John Hopkins University.
Family commitments meant Carson never pursued a PhD, and instead entered civil service, with a full-time professional position for the US Bureau of Fisheries, where she worked for 15 years, also writing several popular books about aquatic life.
Her book sales allowed her to leave her position and concentrate on writing and in 1962 she published Silent Spring, a landmark book that explored the effect pesticides, particularly Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), have on ecosystems through entering the food chain.
This transformed Carson from a much-loved nature writer into an environmental crusader, using meticulous research into scientific literature to support her arguments.
Carson died from advanced breast cancer two years after the book’s publication and did not live to see the full impact of her book. Her legacy includes the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and a US ban on the use of DDT in 1972. Globally she is credited as an inspiration in the deep ecology/green movement, to which Keele is committed. Her advocacy for the environment and conservation led to Time magazine listing her as one of the 25 most influential women of the 20th century.