Dr. Greta A. Fryxell, professor emerita of Oceanography at Texas A&M University, has been honored by the publication of a “festschrift,” which is a volume of writings by a scholar’s students and colleagues presented as a tribute to that person. The festschrift published for Fryxell recognizes her long record of scientific achievement in the fields of oceanography and phycology.

The festschrift was formally presented to Fryxell at a dinner in her honor on February 14 in Claremont, California, where she now lives with her husband, Dr. Paul A. Fryxell. The event was attended by many of her former students from around the world.

Several of Fryxell’s colleagues and former students contributed papers to the volume, which was edited by Texas A&M alumni Linda Medlin, Gregory Doucette, and Maria Villac. Two current members of the Oceanography Department, Professor Lisa Campbell and Research Scientist Norman Guinasso Jr., co-authored a paper for the festschrift which is published in the current issue of the European scientific journal Nova Hedwigia Beihefte (Beiheft 133, 2008). A unique feature of this festschrift is that it includes papers from each of Fryxell’s three children, Dr. Karl J. Fryxell (George Mason University), Dr. Joan E. Fryxell (California State University, San Bernardino), and Dr. Glen E. Fryxell (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) in their fields of biology, geology, and chemistry, respectively.

Fryxell graduated from Augustana College in Illinois in 1948. She went on to teach mathematics and science for four years at Iowa Junior High School, and then worked as a community volunteer for 15 years before returning to college to earn a M.Ed. from Texas A&M in 1969. Fryxell completed her Ph.D. in Oceanography in 1975. She was a student of the late Oceanography professor emeritus Sayed Z. El-Sayed, and she studied and collaborated for many years with Dr. Grethe Hasle of the University of Oslo.

Fryxell joined the Oceanography faculty in 1980 and enjoyed a 14-year career at A&M where she became a recognized expert in diatom morphology and taxonomy. She studied all the marine phytoplankton, but later in her career concentrated her research in toxic species. Although retired, Fryxell’s interests in marine algae and ecology remain avid and she is still an Adjunct Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.