Krystyna Ansevin, the first woman tenure-track faculty member at Rice University, died late last month after suffering from breast cancer. She was 88 years old.
A native of Warsaw, Poland, she studied biology at Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland, earning a master’s degree in 1951. She then began doctoral studies at the University of Warsaw.
Dr. Ansevin came to the United States in 1957 to conduct research at Columbia University. In 1961 she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh and then did postdoctoral research at Columbia and the Cornell University medical school.
In 1965, Dr. Ansevin was appointed lecturer in the department of biology at Rice University. She was the first woman to serve on the faculty of the university’s Wiess School of Natural Sciences. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1966 and to associate professor in 1971. She retired from the faculty at Rice in 1980.