Lois Tiffany remembers when her office wasn’t so cluttered. Now shelves filled with books line one wall, flower arrangements and ceramic mushrooms compete for space among stacks of research on two desks, and pictures of mushrooms are tacked to the wall.

Tiffany, distinguished professor of botany, recently celebrated her 50th year as a faculty member at Iowa State, and the organized chaos in her office is a result of her long career.

“There’s not much more I can crowd into this office,” she said. “Things just sort of accumulate.”

Tiffany said she didn’t aspire to become a teacher after graduating from Iowa State in 1945 with her bachelor’s degree in botany. While in graduate school, she decided to combine her interests in teaching and mycology, the study of fungi.

“It was nothing I’d planned,” she said, “but everything fell into place.”

Tiffany got her master’s and doctorate degrees from Iowa State in 1947 and 1950, respectively. She took a teaching position that opened up shortly afterward, becoming the second female faculty member in the botany department.

As Tiffany developed her career, she also raised three children. They’re “grown and have their own lives,” but Tiffany said she has always made time for them.

“I’ve had the best of both worlds,” she said. “There were times when there were conflicts between raising a family and having a professional experience, but I learned not to take my work home with me.”

While juggling a career and a family, Tiffany received local and national recognition for her work. However, awards aren’t what motivates her, said Harry Horner, professor of botany.

“She loves what she does because it is gratifying to her personally and professionally, not for any recognition,” he said.

Tiffany has received the Governor’s Science Medal for Science Teaching, an induction into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame and a Distinguished Service Award from the Iowa Academy of Science.

But only one award hangs on her office wall. Tiffany was the first recipient of the Mycology Society of America’s award for excellence in mycology teaching. She considers that an achievement because the majority of mycologists are men.

As the first female president of the Iowa Academy of Science, Tiffany has broken barriers for women in scientific fields.

“Once one person has done it, it’s relatively easier for a second person to come in and accomplish the same thing,” she said.

It wasn’t always easy for Tiffany, though. When she first joined the university in 1950, she said the chairman of the botany department asked if she would work for free since her husband had a job. Tiffany told him “no.”

She was still being treated differently 20 years later. While sitting at her desk working, a man walked by her office, looked in, then kept walking., Tiffany said. The third time he did this, she asked who he was looking for.

“I’m looking for Dr. Tiffany,” he said.

“I’m Dr. Tiffany.”

“Are you sure?”

Tiffany, who still laughs at his incredulity, said things are different now.

“There’s a level playing field and equal opportunity,” she said.

Tiffany works hard to keep things that way, and her dedication to research is inspiring, said Rosanne Healy, graduate student in botany.

“Whenever I come in and she isn’t teaching, she is bent over a table filled with papers and books,” Healy said.

Tiffany said her job never feels like work because she enjoys it so much.

“I don’t think I’ve ever really worked a day in my life,” she said.

Her colleagues believe the opposite. David Oliver, chairman of the botany department, said Tiffany is often one of the first people in the office in the morning and one of the last to leave at night.

“Lois is a workaholic,” Oliver said.

Fifty years later, she hasn’t slowed down.

“I will obviously have to retire sometime,” she said. “But as long as I have good health and as long as I can contribute and feel that I am doing a good job of it, I’ll keep on doing it. When it becomes work, then I’ll quit.”