Sophie Charlotte Ducker

Ducker, Sophie C. 'Harvey, William Henry (1811–1866)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harvey-william-henry-3732/text5867, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 25 August 2017

In 1993, Sophie was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne. She received the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science's Mueller Medal in 1996. She was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to recording the history of botany in Australia, to education and to science, particularly in the field of marine botany".

Ducker, Sophie. The contented botanist: letters of W.H. Harvey about Australia and the Pacific. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1984. ISBN 9780522843415

After her retirement, Sophie collaborated with Professor Bruce Knox at the University of Melbourne on pollination, particularly that of seagrasses. Sophie received a DSc from the University of Melbourne in 1978. She also published biographies of early Australian botanists. The standard author abbreviation Ducker is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Sophie worked as a research assistant for Ethel Irene McLennan of the botany school at the University of Melbourne. She completed a BSc there in 1952. In 1957, she became a botany lecturer at the university and, in 1961, a senior lecturer. She specialized in marine botany, especially algae. Her eldest husband Friedrich died in Melbourne in 1972. Sophie retired in 1974 but continued to conduct research, present papers and lecture.

On 3 February 1944, Sophie gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Catherine Sophie Ducker, at Waranga Hospital in Goulburn. The baby was buried at Tatura Cemetery the following day and later moved to Tatura (German) Military Cemetery.

On 17 September 1941, Friedrich Ducker was arrested by the British Military Authorities and interred as an enemy alien. Sophie petitioned to accompany her husband with their young son and was also arrested. The family were later brought to Australia where they were interred at Tatura.

Sophie grew up in Dresden and later studied at the Cheltenham Ladies' College in England. She began the study of botany at the University of Geneva and the University of Stuttgart. She stopped her studies in 1931 when she married Dr Johann Friedrich Ducker, known as Friedrich. The couple’s only son, Klaus Heinrich Ducker, was born in Hamburg on 22 September 1933. Sophie also had a stepson, Hanfried Ducker, from her husband’s previous marriage.

Sophie Charlotte Ducker (née von Klemperer) AM (9 April 1909 – 20 May 2004) was a German-born Australian botanist. She was awarded the Mueller Medal in 1996.

Sophie Charlotte von Klemperer was born in Berlin on 9 April 1909. She was the daughter of Victor von Klemperer, a Jewish German who converted to Christianity upon marriage, and his wife Sophie von Klemperer (née Reichenheim).