Isabella Aiona Abbott (b. 1919 in Hana, Maui, Hawai'i) is the first native Hawaiian woman to receive a PhD in science.^[1]

She was the G.P. Wilder Professor of Botany from 1980 until her retirement, and is now is professor emerita of Botany at the University of Hawai'i.^[2]

She received her degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1950 and then began a career as a professor at Stanford University where she taught for 30 years before moving back to Hawaii. She is the author of over 150 publications.^[3]She is considered to be the world's leading expert on Hawaiian seaweeds, known in Hawaiian as limu. In 1997 she received a National Academy of Science G.M. Smith Medal. ^[4]In 2008 she received a lifetime achievement award from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.

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