the diversity of species associated with trees, shrubs and also the grasses and forbs of the Ukraine steppe. The specimens that she collected during this work are now kept in the National Herbarium of Ukraine within the Institute of Botany. Later, in the 1960s, she worked on fungal classification including of the genera Inocybe and Dacryomstra. She applied the newly available technology of scanning electron microscopy in this research. She led research on increasing the number of fungal species harvested for human food, including developing cultivation methods for more species. These cultivation strategies were considered more important after the realisation that wild fungal fruiting bodies could accumulate heavy metals and radioactive isotopes from the soil. She also initiated research into medicinal properties of some of these species. During her career she supervised postgraduate students and also gave lectures and seminars to the public as well as scientific conferences. Publications Zerova is the author or co-author of over 200 publications. These include books about the fungi of Ukraine. M. Ya. Zerova, Edible and poisonous mushrooms of Ukraine (Їстівні та отруйні гриби України) (in Ukrainian, two editions, 1963 and 1970). M. Ya. Zerova and SP Wasser, Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the Ukrainian Carpathians (Їстівні та отруйні гриби Українських Карпат) (in Ukrainian, 1972). M. Ya. Zerova, Atlas of Mushrooms of Ukraine (Атлас грибів України) (in Ukrainian, 1974). With colour drawings of 550 species of mushrooms. She was one of the authors of the Determination of mushrooms of Ukraine (Визначник грибів України), that was published in five volumes in seven books between 1967 and 1979, although work on it started in 1946. She contributed to Volume 2, on ascomycota and basidiomycota found in the Ukraine region, and also to Volume 3 where she provided a critical revision of the fungi imperfecti. In the 60's Zerova published generalized works on the classification and evolution of ascomycetes. Awards In December 1983 Zerova was awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology in the field of science and technology for her contributions to the Determination of Mushrooms of Ukraine (1967–1979). Personal life She met and married Dmitry Zerov while she was a student at Kiev University. They had a child, zoologist Marina Zerova. References 1902 births 1994 deaths Soviet mycologists Women mycologists Ukrainian women biologists 20th-century Ukrainian women scientists Laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology Soviet women biologists Soviet