They honor Mary Kalin, teacher of generations and pioneer of plant ecology

“The research is not done alone, it is done with colleagues and the students. I am almost 81 years old and I will continue. Being a scientist is not a professional job, it is a life.” With these words, Mary Kalin closed the ceremony in which the University of Chile baptized with her name the building of the Department of Ecological Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences. And also left a warning to students and a memory of their rigor: “It is not a real scientist who closes the door of his laboratory at six in the afternoon.”

The director of Chic, Ricardo Rozzi, thanked the initiative of the Department of Ecological Sciences of the University of Chile and appealed to the importance of communicating this act to the country, at a time when it is critical to strengthen the dialogues and collaborations to address complex problems such as global socio -environmental change.

“This appointment of the Mary Kalin building expresses the central value of the work in collaborative networks between researchers and institutions to generate a science with a social sense that contributes to human well -being and all living beings. expressed.

The act, held on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, was framed in the celebrations for the 60 years of the Faculty and agreed with the 47 years since the researcher joined the University. Kalin, of New Zealand origin and trained at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and in Berkeley, California, arrived in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile in 1978. Since then it became a central figure to forge the field of plant ecology in Chile. His career was recognized by authorities, colleagues and alumni, who highlighted both their scientific rigor and their ability to form research communities.

“This honor reflects the profound impact that the professor has had on this faculty,” said Vice -Emphar But it is little grateful in recognition.

New Zealand to Chile

Kalin, of Swiss and Irish ancestors, was born in New Zealand and graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1967 with honors. Her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, placed her on the first line of botanical research and there she met the Chilean agronomist Manuel Arroyo, who became her husband and life partner. Since then he signed his works as Mary Kalin-Arroyo, although his second original surname is Hurley.

Subsequently, in the Botanical Garden of New York, he made a postdoctorate with Peter Raven, one of the most influential figures of conservation biology and a member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences, with whom he established a lasting friendship and collaboration.

Before arriving in Chile, he passed through the Central University of Venezuela, where he studied the ecosystems of Páramo. That Latin American experience marked its approach to the high environments, which then deepened in the Andes and the Magellan Patagonia.

An institutional legacy

Already in Chile, he joined the Faculty of Sciences, just five years before the creation of the Department of Ecological Sciences. There he developed teaching, led research and trained dozens of undergraduate and postgraduate students. It also contributed decisively to the creation of institutions that transformed the national scientific landscape.

In the 2000s he founded the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) and directed it for more than a decade. From that platform, he supported the creation of the Cabo de Hornos International Center (Chic), of which he was deputy director, and the Millennium Base Institute. The chic is oriented to sub -Antarctic research and the base, to Antarctic research.

“IEB evaluation reports shone and stood out at the highest levels,” Claudio Wernli, first executive director of the Millennium program recalled. “And from that institute children were born as relevant as chic.”

The voice of his disciples

On behalf of the Chic, the ecologist and philosopher Ricardo Rozzi stressed the scientific importance of his work: “Mary taught us that the climatic and ecological gradients are interrelated and in Chile they offer a paradigmatic natural laboratory to understand how plants, pollinators and ecosystems change in front of the climate. That look opened a research school that is still alive until today,” he said.

He explained that the gradients – whether altitude in the mountain range or latitudinals in the southern end – allow observing how insects and plants communities respond to temperature decrease: bumblebees decrease, while butterflies and mosquitoes increase as pollinators. “From these observations, thesis projects, publications and, above all, a way of thinking about ecology from Chile to the world emerged,” he added. He also thanked the space of freedom that Mary gave to his students to develop their creativity. Razzi this allowed him to propose the metaphor of the “Southern Latin Summit of Cabo de Hornos”, to conceive chic as a sentry of climate change that today becomes worldwide relevance for studies of global change.

Rozzi closed his speech with personal recognition: “For many of us, Mary was not only a teacher, but a life teacher. He knew how to transform science into a collective exercise and an ethical commitment to nature. That is the example that will continue to inspire young researchers.”

Expeditions and collaborators

Kalin’s brand also remained in his expeditions. In the eighties he toured Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego together with researchers such as Francisco Squeo, Lohengrin Cavieres, Edmundo Pisano and Claudio Donoso.

In these trips studies on plants in cushion were consolidated, also called nurse plants, which gave rise to lines of research that are still developed.

“On land Mary was always going, without stopping, except to kneel in front of a small plant,” Squeo recalled. In these campaigns, cooperation with Juan Armesto and Carolina Villagrán was also forged, who, together with Kalin, established ecological botany as a discipline in Chile.

Science in the field

The dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the Catholic University, Fernanda Pérez, evoked her doctoral days with botany:

“When you have the privilege of going to the ground with Mary, she is someone who kneels and looks for the smallest plant and is able to differentiate her from the rest. That possibility is very little,” he said.

Beyond the investigation, Pérez highlighted his formative rigor: “With it we learned that the concept of biodiversity is built observing diversity, in long horseback riding by the mountain range, with collection maps in hand. That rigor is the one that has left Chilean botany as an inheritance.”

Collective recognition

The department director, Claudio Veloso, acknowledged that the decision to baptize the building with his name was unanimous among colleagues and officials.

“We take a long time to make this necessary recognition. When I raised it to the department, there was no one to question it. This tribute not only honors Mary, it also does us well as a community.”

Poetry for science

One of the most emotional moments was the projection of a video in tenths written by the ecologist of Chic and the Ramiro Bustamante Faculty, which reviewed the life and work of Botany. Poetically Bustamante said:

“Mary, as a pilgrim / rose to that heights / thus starting his adventure / That atmosphere fascinates him!” He recited one of the stanzas. In another, his scientific legacy was summarized: “Evolution orienta / pa ‘study the vegetables / together with the animals / that flowers visited.”

The tenths synthesized with poetry what later recalled colleagues and alumni: more than 200 publications that discovered keys of plant evolution and interaction with pollinators, with an impact that transcended the academy to inspire public policies and conservation of ecosystems.

A life dedicated to science

Mary Kalin has previously received other tributes from the University of Chile, including the Rectoral Medal and the Aminanda Labarca award. Her career led her to integrate scientific academies in Chile, the United States and the United Kingdom, in addition to obtaining the National Prize for Natural Sciences in 2010. But in her final words she made it clear that, above recognitions, the central has been the commitment to science as a way of life.

“We have a wonderful country, with unknown sites, with gradients that allow us to test ecological theories using our own natural resources. That not all countries have it. We have a treasure here and we must take care of it, but also use it for the good of the community,” he said excitedly.

With his usual unmistakable accent that was affected affectionately in several of the interventions, Kalin finished that he will continue to arrive every day to the building that now bears his name:

“It’s my house. I am here from nine in the morning until half past eight at night, yet.”