Born: 14 June 1927, Germany
Died: 31 December 2017
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Doris Hermann
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Doris Sinkora was for 24 years a Technical Assistant at the National Herbarium of Victoria, a designation which does not reflect her expertise as a phycologist. Appointed to undertake general curation duties, she soon developed an interest in algae that saw her become curator of those collections. In addition to establishing an index of synonyms and types, she became adept at interpreting herbarium labels and uncovering documents in, and connections with, other herbaria. Her skill in this area was readily acknowledged by the many phycologists with whom she corresponded. Vacations spent on the Victorian south coast near Walkerville resulted in over 2500 algal specimens being lodged in the Herbarium. Sinkora was the major contributor to the compilation of a bibliography of the publications of Ferdinand von Mueller. Her skills at transliterating and translating letters in 19th century scripts were of particular value for the Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller Project, an international enterprise of which she was an Editor. In retirement she continued to work on this Project, as well as breeding begonias, African violets, orchids and cacti. The algal genus Sinkoraena was named in her honour.
Chronology
1968 – 1974
Career position – Technical Assistant, National Herbarium of Victoria
1974 – 1986
Career position – Technical Assistant Grade 1, National Herbarium of Victoria
1986 – 1992
Career position – Technical Assistant Grade 2, National Herbarium of Victoria
2000 – 2003
Career position – Honorary Research Associate, National Herbarium of Victoria