Ivan Mackenzie Lamb was born September 11, 1911, in Clapham, London. Lamb's family moved to Scotland when he was young, and it was there that he began his schooling, finally graduating with a B.Sc. at Edinburgh University in 1933. From Edinburgh, he traveled to Germany, where he did research in Munich and Wurzburg. In 1935, he was appointed Assistant Keeper of the Department of Botany in the British Museum of Natural History. Here he began to narrow his interest in lichens to those of the Antarctic regions. His scholarship of this subject would continue throughout his life, and his thesis on continental movement as demonstrated by Antarctic lichen flora earned him the degree Doctor of Science from Edinburgh University in 1942.
In 1943, Lamb took a leave of absence from his position at the British Museum in order to participate in "Operation Tabarin," a secret British expedition to the Antarctic. While the purpose of this mission was primarily to establish a British wartime presence in the Antarctic, scientific research also took place. By all accounts, Lamb was a valuable addition to the expedition, not only serving as botanist, but also lending a hand whenever it was needed. The expedition and Lamb's participation is detailed in James David's That Frozen Land: The Story of a Year in the Antarctic (London: Falcon Press, 1949.)
Following Operation Tabarin, Lamb, his wife Maila, and his son moved to Argentina, where Lamb held a teaching position at the Instituto Lilloa. Mrs. Lamb, in particular, was not fond of life in Argentina, and in 1950 Lamb took a position at the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa. Lamb held this position until 1953, when he became Director of the Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium at Harvard University, a position he held until his retirement in 1973. During this time, Lamb undertook many studies of marine algae, including a study undertaken in the Antarctic. This expedition was known by Lamb and his colleagues as "Operation Gooseflesh." During his days at Farlow, Lamb also did extensive research on Stereocaulon, in anticipation of producing a monograph on the genus. Unfortunately, this monograph was never published.
In 1971, Lamb underwent gender reassignment surgery. Living as Elke Mackenzie, she did not continue her previous cryptogamic research. Instead, Mackenzie supported herself by translating several German botanical textbooks into English. This work allowed her to begin her retirement in Costa Rica. In 1980, Mackenzie returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she lived with her daughter. Sadly, Mackenzie was diagnosed in 1983 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Her health declined until succumbed to the disease in 1990.
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