Mary Alice McWhinnie (August 10, 1922 – March 17, 1980) was an American biologist, professor at DePaul University and an authority on krill.

[1][2] From Chicago, Illinois, she was the first woman to sail for two months in Antarctic waters aboard the NSF's research vessel, USNS Eltanin.

[5] In 1962, she and her research assistant, Phyllis Marciniack, were selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to sail for two months on the USNS Eltanin (Cruise 6, 24 November 1962 – 23 January 1963) in the Antarctic.

Her career included eleven trips to the Antarctic, more than fifty published scientific papers, and many presentations of research findings.

During the observation, they found that krill become smaller and less sexually mature in appearance after spawning, a phenomenon called "regression".

She also was careful to discern that premolt crayfish regularly have higher levels of amino acids in their various tissues than they do during the intermolt stage.