biology

Patricia Bergquist

Patricia Bergquist is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Patricia Bergquist rather than just read about it. In short: Dame Patricia Rose Bergquist (née Smyth, 10 March 1933 – 9 September 2009) was a New Zealand zoologist who specialised in anatomy and taxonomy. At the time of her death, she was professor emerita of zoology and honorary professor of anatomy with radiology at the University of Auckland.

Key takeaways

Patricia Bergquist belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Patricia Bergquist to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Patricia Bergquist from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Dame Patricia Rose Bergquist (née Smyth, 10 March 1933 – 9 September 2009) was a New Zealand zoologist who specialised in anatomy and taxonomy. At the time of her death, she was professor emerita of zoology and honorary professor of anatomy with radiology at the University of Auckland.

Early life, family and education Born Patricia Rose Smyth in the Auckland suburb of Devonport on 10 March 1933, Bergquist was the daughter of William Smyth, an electrician, and Bertha Ellen (née Penny) Smyth, a homemaker. She had a younger brother Norman and a sister Catherine. She was educated at Devonport Primary School, and then Takapuna Grammar School where she was dux in her final year. She then began studying at Auckland University College in 1950, graduating MSc with first-class honours in botany in 1956; the title of her master's thesis was Contributions to the study of the loxsomaceae. After completing a second MSc equivalent in zoology, she undertook doctoral studies at Auckland, obtaining her PhD, supervised by William Roy McGregor and John Morton, on the taxonomy of the Porifera in 1961. Bergquist was the first person to earn a doctoral degree in zoology from the University of Auckland. In 1958, she married Peter Bergquist, a noted molecular biologist, and the couple went on to have one daughter.

Academic and research career Following her doctorate, Patricia Bergquist studied overseas, initially at Yale University where she broadened her systematic expertise, before returning to New Zealand and becoming an educator and researcher at the University of Auckland on matters related to anatomy, taxonomy and zoology, with particular interest in the marine sponge. She felt a stable framework of higher level classification which would permit recognition of generic relationships and facilitate descriptions of new species was missing. When Bergquist received a Personal Chair at the University of Auckland, she was the first woman at that university to do so. She co-authored (with Mary E. Sinclair) The Morphology and Behaviour of Larvae of Some Intertidal Sponges for the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, which was published on 20 October 1967. Bergquist's notable students include Michelle Kelly-Borges and Jane Fromont. In 1979, Bergquist was conferred the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Auckland, on the basis of 28 submitted publications.

Honours and awards Bergquist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1982, and in 1989 she was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand. In the 1994 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to science. Her husband, Peter Bergquist, was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science, in the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours.

Legacy Numerous sponges have been named in her honour, e.g., Xestospongia bergquistia Fromont, 1991, Tethya bergquistae Hooper, 1994, Acarnus bergquistae Van Soest, Hooper & Hiemstra, 1991, Plakortis bergquistae Muricy, 2011, and Phyllospongia bergquistae Wahab & Fromont, 2020. Bergquist featured as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words" project in 2017.

See also Taxa named by Patricia Bergquist

Death Patricia Bergquist died of breast cancer in Auckland on 9 September 2009, aged 76.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Patricia Bergquist

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Patricia Bergquist claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Patricia Bergquist before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Patricia Bergquist ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Patricia Bergquist

In research: Patricia Bergquist appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Patricia Bergquist in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Patricia Bergquist is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1933 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century New Zealand medical doctors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Patricia Bergquist outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Patricia Bergquist in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Patricia Bergquist means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Patricia Bergquist out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Patricia Bergquist in simple terms?

Why does Patricia Bergquist matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Patricia Bergquist?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Patricia Bergquist.