Hertha Walburga Doris Sieverts-Doreck was born in
Völklingen,
German Empire, in 1899, the eldest of three daughters born to a chemist father.
Education She trained as a teacher for
schools in Prussia, but she became interested in mathematics and the natural sciences. Doreck focused on
zoology,
paleontology and
geology during her time at the
University of Berlin and she researched
Cretaceous Crinoids for her
dissertation, which she completed under the supervision of
Josef Felix Pompeckj in 1927. , Indonesia.
Research After she was only able to find a series of short-term positions, she was finally hired at the Institute for Applied Geology in
Bonn at a very low salary in 1930. Although she mostly worked as a personal assistant to J. Wanner, she was allowed to work with the fossil collection. After five years, she got a training opportunity at the
National Prussian Geological Institute in Berlin and was hired there in 1936 in the role of a scientific assistant. This job entailed mapping and fieldwork; it was unusual for a woman to perform such work at that time. R.C. Moore invited Doreck to his facilities in
Lawrence, Kansas, where she assumed the role of the 'German Crinoid Expert.' According to Ogilvie, "She had devised a system of classification for
Mesozoic Crinoids that, although never published, was and still is the basis for the systematics of this group. During the last years of her research, Doreck turned to the systematics of the
Holothuroideans." When her husband became seriously ill, Doreck took care of him until his death in 1972. She died on 30 March 1991. == Honors ==