Canna Maria Louise Popta (31 May 1860 - 13 June 1929) was a Dutch biologist. Born in Breda, Popta was one of the first women to enrol as a student at Leiden University where she studied for a degree in geology, zoology and botany, allowing her to teach in high schools. She studied for her doctorate at the University of Berne under the supervision of Eduard Fischer, her thesis was on the Hemiasci, a fungal group which was then thought to be the link between the Phycomycetes and Ascomycetes. After completing her doctorate she obtained a position at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden as a Lab Assistant to the curator of reptiles, amphibians and fishes. During her career at the museum she concentrated mainly on ichthyology, eventually retiring in 1928, and dying the following y