Isabel Clifton Cookson

Isabel Clifton Cookson (25 December 1893 – 1 July 1973) was an Australian botanist who specialised in palaeobotany and palynology.

Cookson was born at Hawthorn, Victoria, and attended the Methodist Ladies' College at Kew where she gained honours in anatomy, physiology and botany in the senior public examination.

Cookson went on to study for her BSc at the University of Melbourne and graduated in 1916 with majors in botany and zoology.

From the 1940s she worked on fossil spores, pollen and phytoplankton and their relationship with palaeogeography and championed the usefulness of plant microfossils for oil exploration.

Henki, the 2021 album by British folk singer Richard Dawson and Finnish band Circle, features a song titled "Cooksonia", which lyrically details elements of Cookson's life and work.