View source for Rosa Lee

{{for|the Hong Kong-born British painter|Rosa Lee (artist)}}
{{short description|Statistician}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Rosa Mabel Lee
| image = Rosa Mabel Lee while working in Lowestoft.jpg
| image_size =
| birth_date = 1884
| birth_place = Conwy, Caernarvonshire, Wales
| death_date = 1976
| death_place = Greenwich, London, England
| fields = *Statistics
*Fisheries Science
| workplaces = *[[Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom]]
*[[Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom)]]
| alma_mater = [[Bangor University]]
| known_for = First woman to work as a government fisheries scientist in the UK
| influences = | influenced =
| awards =
| spouse =
}}
'''Rosa Mabel Lee''' (1884-1976) was a British [[statistician]], the first woman scientist to be employed by the [[Marine Biological Association]] and the first woman to work as a government [[Fisheries science|fishery scientist]] in the [[United Kingdom]].
Lee studied the growth of fish using the growth rings on their scales. In 1920,  she discovered the effect now known as the 'Lee phenomenon' or 'Rosa Lee Phenomenon', and her results are still cited in modern publications.
==Early years==
Lee was born in [[Conwy|Conwy, Caernarvonshire]] in 1884. Her father, George Henry Payne Lee was a civil servant, born in [[Exeter|Exeter, Devon]]. Her mother was Maria Agnes, born in [[St Pancras, London]].  In 1894, her father worked in Conwy as a postal telegraph inspector. Rosa had two older brothers (Harold and Albert) and two older sisters (Amy and Florence).<ref>{{cite book|title=Census Returns of England and Wales|date=1891|publisher=The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO)Public Record Office|location=Kew, Surrey, England}}</ref>
She graduated from [[Bangor University]] in 1904 with a BA in mathematics (Class: II), its first woman graduate in mathematics.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Davis|first1=A.E.L|title=Mathematical Women in the British Isles|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Davis/info.html|publisher=University of Essex|accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref>
==Working life==
Lee was employed by the [[Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom|Marine Biological Association]] (MBA) in their laboratory at [[Lowestoft]], the first woman scientist to be employed by the MBA.<ref name="100years">{{cite journal|last1=Southward|first1=A.J.|last2=Roberts|first2=E.K|date=1987|title=One Hundred Years of Marine Research at Plymouth|journal=Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK|volume=67|issue=3|pages=465–506|doi=10.1017/s0025315400027259|bibcode=1987JMBUK..67..465S |s2cid=84504168 |url=http://plymsea.ac.uk/286/1/One_hundred_years_of_marine_research_at_Plymouth.pdf}}</ref> Lee became the first woman to work as a government fishery scientist<ref name="ministry">{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=A.J.|title=The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's Directorate of Fisheries Research: its origins and development.|date=1992|publisher=Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food|location=Lowestoft, UK|pages=332}}</ref> when she was employed as an assistant naturalist in 1905. In 1910, all of the staff at Lowestoft were transferred to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and during the original transfer, Lee was not offered a job. The board reportedly stated that they 'did not employ women scientists'.<ref name=buckland2>{{cite journal|last1=Southward|first1=A.J.|title=The Marine Biological Association and Fishery Research, 1884–1924: Scientific and political conflicts that changed the course of marine research in the United Kingdom.|journal=Buckland Occasional Papers|date=1996|volume=2|pages=61–80}}</ref> However, after protests from the MBA and Garstang, she was allowed to start work as a civil servant. She continued her research and stayed on with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in London until 1919. She worked at the office in Delahay Street,<ref name="buckland2" /> Westminster.<ref>{{cite web|title=Delahay Street, Westminster, Greater London|url=http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk/search/reference.aspx?uid=216069&index=0&mainQuery=isaacs%20florence&searchType=all&form=home|website=Viewfinder|publisher=Historic England|accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref>
In the 1911 census she was recorded as living in London with her sister, Amy Lee at 2 Avenue House, St Johns Wood, London.<ref>{{cite book|title=Census Returns of England and Wales|date=1911|publisher=The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO)Public Record Office|location=Kew, Surrey, England}}</ref> The street is now renamed Allison Street but Avenue House still exists.
Rosa Lee married Thomas Lewis Williams in 1917, but had to leave the Civil Service in 1919<ref name="buckland2" /> as the [[marriage bar]] rules at the time did not allow married women to continue in employment.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Iglikowski|first1=Vicky|title="A perfect nuisance": The history of women in the Civil Service|url=https://history.blog.gov.uk/2015/05/26/a-perfect-nuisance-the-history-of-women-in-the-civil-service/|website=Civil Service|date=26 May 2015 |publisher=UK Government|accessdate=26 May 2015}}</ref>
Rosa and Thomas subsequently moved to [[Abergavenny]], Monmouthshire, where Rosa stayed, until after her husband's death in 1946. Rosa herself died in [[Greenwich]] (London) in 1976, aged 92.
==Scientific work==
Lee published a number of important scientific papers in her working life,<ref name=Rosa-ICES>{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=R.M|title=An investigation into the methods of growth determination in fishes by means of scales|journal=Journal du Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer|date=1912|volume=1|issue=63|pages=3–34|doi=10.1093/icesjms/s1.63.3|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431757|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="citations">{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=c8aOb_IAAAAJ |title=Rosa M Lee - Google Scholar Citations |accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref> including an article that appeared in [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']] in 1920.<ref name=Nature>{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=R.M.|title=Age and Growth Determination in Fishes|journal=Nature|date=1920|volume=106|issue=2654|pages=49–51|doi=10.1038/106049a0|bibcode=1920Natur.106...49L |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, her most cited work is not  one published in a prestigious journal, but is a report for the [[Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries]].<ref name=RosaLeePhenom>{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=R.M.|title=A review of methods of age and growth determination in fishes by mean of scale fisheries|journal=Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Fishery Investigations|date=1920|volume=2|issue=4|pages=32}}</ref>
==Rosa Lee phenomenon==
Fish scales have growth rings and are used to age fish, in the same way that tree rings can be used to age trees. Fishery scientists try and understand the fish populations by modelling. They need to know how old and how big the fish are and how each ‘cohort’ of the population will grow as it matures. Each catch of fish has fish of different ages, i.e. fish that were born in different years. The size and growth of these fish can be linked to environmental variables. Predicting future stock of fish is necessary for good management, and to do this, accurate estimates of growth rates and 'length at age' are required.<ref name="ricker">{{cite journal|last1=Ricker|first1=W.E.|title=Effects of size-selective mortality and sampling bias on estimates of growth, mortality, production, and yield|journal=Journal of the Fisheries Board of Canada|date=1969|volume=26|issue=3|pages=479–541|doi=10.1139/f69-051}}</ref> By measuring the rings of a fish its possible to say how long it was for every year of its life.
Lee observed that you may get different results for growth rates by 'back calculating' from an older fish, than you would when calculating growth rates from younger fish. This  phenomenon occurs when individuals in a population with slower growth rates suffer less mortality when young. The older population is skewed by more slower growing fish, as the faster growing fish died at a younger age. There can be a number of reasons for this, one reason can be selective mortality, e.g. fishing gear that selects for a particular size of fish will catch the larger young fish and the smaller old fish. It can also occur when the sampling is biased.
Rosa Lee's work is still relevant today and her paper is frequently cited,<ref name="citations"/> however her actual influence is greater than indicated by the number of citations, because some scientific authors simply refer to 'Rosa Lee's phenomenon' rather than correctly citing her publication.
==External links==
* [https://history.blog.gov.uk/2015/05/26/a-perfect-nuisance-the-history-of-women-in-the-civil-service/ 'A Perfect Nuisance' - The history of women in the civil service]
* [https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=c8aOb_IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao Link to Rosa Lee's Publications through Google Scholar]
==References==
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[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1976 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Bangor University]]
[[Category:20th-century British zoologists]]
[[Category:British statisticians]]
[[Category:Women marine biologists]]
[[Category:British marine biologists]]
[[Category:20th-century British women scientists]]