Emphasizing the vital importance of environmental cleanup and conservation, Ruth Patrick has spent a lifetime facilitating cooperation among the scientific and political communities to find solutions to biospheric pollution. Her aggressive endeavors in freshwater research, including work on diatoms and the biodynamic cycles of rivers, have made much progress toward rectifying damage done by pollutants.

Her enthusiasm and concern for the biosphere began at an early age in her hometown of Kansas City, where, as a child, she conducted many expeditions through the countryside surrounding her family home. Collecting specimen materials and identifying them set the course for Patrick's future. She was fascinated by the microscopic world that could be found even in the smallest drop of water.

Patrick continued to foster her interests in science as she grew older. She attended Coker College in Hartsville...