Cleofé E. Calderon was born on October 26, 1929 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There she studied with Prof. Ing. Lorenzo Parodi, the renowned agrostologist, at the University of Buenos Aires. During a trip to Washington, D.C. in 1961-1962, “Cleo”, was introduced to Curator of Grasses, Dr. Tomas R. Soderstrom, in the Department of Botany at the U.S. National Herbarium at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. The two began a close collaboration that included field collecting and publishing. She became a prominent botanist at National Museum of Natural History specializing in bamboo. With support from the Smithsonian Research Foundation and the Smithsonian’s Office of Systematics and Office of Ecology, the Office of Scientific Affairs of the Organization of American States, and the National Geographic Society, Cleo was able to undertake field work in Central and South America, as well as enjoying time in Europe and India consulting with influential botanists. She collected plant specimens in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Columbia, and Brazil between 1966 and 1982. Calderon spent the majority of her time doing field work and collecting in Brazil. In 1976 she and her colleagues set out on ten-week journey to study and collect bamboo in the mata Atlantica of eastern Brazil. In 1979 she was in back in Amazonas, Brazil collecting grass specimens. Her last specimens collected came during a trip to Ecuador and Columbia in 1981-1982. By 1985 Cleo had left the field of botany altogether. She continued to live in Washington, D.C. but after attending the memorial service for longtime colleague, Tom Soderstrom, in September 1987, she severed all ties to her botanical life. Calderon retired and returned to Argentina in 2005 to be closer to her sister and the rest of her family. She died in Buenos Aires on March 19, 2007.
Smithsonian Institution Archives Field Book Project: Person : Description : rid_251_pid_EACP248
