Marie Klenova

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Marie Klenova was a Russian marine geologist. Her most notable claim to fame is to become the first woman scientist to do research in Antarctica, specifically at the ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions) station at Macquarie Island. Klenova studied to become a professor and later on worked as a member of the Council for Antarctic Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During that time she spent nearly thirty years researching in the northern Polar Regions. In the austral summer of 1956 she traveled with a Soviet oceanographic team to map uncharted areas of the Antarctic coast.

Her contributions helped to create the first Antarctic atlas, a groundbreaking four-volume work published in the Soviet Union. Dr. Klenova spent most of her time making observations on board the Russian icebreakers Ob and Lena. Her group took oceanographic measurements in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters. Along with Klenova there were seven other women on board the Ob. At that time women were rarely allowed to venture on land and had to rely on their male colleagues to collect and bring back data samples. In between these two voyages she worked at Mirny, a Russian base on the Queen Mary Coast (which is shared by Australian and Polish Research Stations). On the way home Klenova went to the Macquarie where she became the first female scientist ever to go ashore.

Marie Klenova was not the first woman to travel to the Antarctic. During the Ronne Expedition, which occurred right after the end of WWII, Finn Ronne brought along his wife Edith and her friend Jennie Darlington to accompany him, making them the first females on the ice. Marie Klenova helped to clear the way for women to make important contributions to Antarctic research. Although many women traveled to Antarctica, it was not until 1972 that Dr. Mary Alice McWhinnie became the first woman to have a leadership role in an Antarctic research station.