Born: 3 October 1928 or 1929, Canada
Died: 20 May 2021
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Loisette Matilda Rutt
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.
Loisette Marsh was one of Australia’s few echinoderm taxonomists. After graduate studies on the zonation of limestone rock platforms near Perth, and eight years on Norfolk Island and Fiji (during which time she collected echiniderms for Elizabeth Pope at the Australian Museum), she joined the Western Australian Museum with responsibility for the cnidarian and echinoderm collections. She was a central figure in collecting, cataloging and expanding the Western Australian Museum’s coral collection. From 1978 Marsh headed the Marine Invertebrate Zoology Department, later part of the Department of Aquatic Zoology. Her research involved survey dives and cruises, and expeditions to reefs, along the Western Australian coast, and the discovery of tropical species being brought down by (then unknown) Leeuwin Current. She played a large role in the protection of Ningaloo Reef. Her publications include Sea-stingers – and other venomous and poisonous marine invertebrates of Western Australia (1986, with Shirley M. Slack-Smith) and, the result of 60 years of research, A field guide to the shallow water seastars of Australia (2020).
Chronology
1956
Education – Master of Arts (MA), University of Western Australia
1960 – 1963
Life event – On Norfolk Island
1963 – 1968
Life event – In Fiji
1968 – 1970
Career position – Demonstrator (part-time), University of Western Australia
1969 – 2009
Career position – Member, Australian Marine Sciences Association
1970 – 1978
Career position – Museum assistant (molluscs), Western Australian Museum
1978 – 1988
Career position – Curator, Marine Invertebrate Zoology Department, Western Australian Museum
1988 – 1993
Career position – Curator of marine invertebrates, Department of Aquatic Zoology, Western Australian Museum
2010
Award – Certificate of Commendation, Whitley Awards, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, for Field guide to sea stingers and other venomous and poisonous marine invertebrates of Western Australia
2010 – 2021
Award – Honorary Life Member, Australian Marine Sciences Association
2021
Award – Member of the Order of Australia (AM) (posthumous) – for significant service to marine science and zoology
2021
Award – Certificate of Commendation, Whitley Awards, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, for A field guide to the shallow water seastars of Australia