The first Native Hawai’ian woman to earn a PhD in science, Isabella Aiona Abbott was one of the world’s foremost authorities on limu, or the more than 70 edible varieties of seaweed. Her work won Abbott the accolade “First Lady of Limu.” Also considered the foremost expert on central-Pacific algae, Abbott navigated an ocean of “firsts” for indigenous people through her 90 years (1919–2010).
Isabella Kauakea Yau Yung Aiona was born in Hana, Maui, where she spent hours during her childhood gathering seaweed for use in traditional Hawai’ian foods. She learned their uses — and fluent Hawai’ian — from her mother. After graduating from Kamehameha Schools in 1937, Abbott earned a bachelor’s degree in botany from the University of Hawai’i in 1941 and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1942. She married zoologist Don Abbott, then obtained her PhD in algal taxonomy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1950.
At that time academic jobs for female PhDs of any ethnicity were rare, so Abbott followed her husband to Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif. There she spent 10 years raising their daughter, Annie, and refining her seaweed culinary skills. (She also wrote a book about how to cook seaweed.) Finally, in 1960, she began work as a lecturer at Hopkins, and her keen scientific mind had a chance to shine. Celia Smith, professor of botany at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, noted that Abbott became “without doubt, the preeminent marine botanist.”
Abbott became the first female full professor in Stanford’s biology department, as well as the first minority full professor, in 1972, bypassing the normal tenure track due to her exceptional record. In 1976, she wrote Marine Algae of California, which Dave Epel, professor emeritus of biology at Stanford, characterized as “the definitive description of marine algae along the Pacific coast.” Altogether, Abbott penned eight books and more than 150 articles.
In 1982, the couple retired to Hawai’i, where Abbott joined the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and taught Hawai’ian ethnobotany. Thanks to her work, the university created a bachelor’s degree in this subject.
The National Academy of Sciences honored Abbott with its highest award in marine botany, the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal, in 1997. Abbott was named a Living Treasure of Hawaii, and she was given the opportunity to name a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration research ship, the Hi’ialakai. Abbott continued working at UH Manoa until her death in October 2010.
In a video shot just before she died, Abbott described her Native perspective through the window of her book, La’au Hawai’i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants. “I look upon it as a Western scientist’s viewpoint of the Hawai’ian way of doing things,” she said. “Why is this necessary? So that Hawai’ians are not put in second- or third-class status of Native people who don’t know anything. Hawai’ian culture is unbelievably sophisticated.”
