OVERCOMING THE ODDS Brief Biographies of Women Scientists

A Lockdown Project, 2020 During lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, members of Soroptimist International of Middlesbrough compiled this booklet about women scientists and Middlesbrough other professionals and the contribution they had made to expanding knowledge in a range of scientific fields Founded in 1921, Soroptimist International is a global volunteer movement working together to transform the lives of women and girls. Our network has around 72,000 members in 121 countries. Our mission is to transform the lives and status of women and girls through education, empowerment and enabling opportunities.

You are free to use any information from this book which COLOPHON we hope will be used to promote the cause of Soroptimist International. This is a not-for-profit project. Any proceeds OVERCOMING THE ODDS will be divided to support the ongoing work of our Brief Biographies of Women Scientists organisation and one of our current charities. This book was first published in 2020 by Soroptimist International Middlesbrough The book makes use of information from Wikipedia. www.sigbi.org/middlesbrough Grateful thanks are given to this much used but, in our opinion, undervalued resource. Most images used in the Designed by Two Faces Design, 12 Upleatham Street, book are in the public domain and therefore also freely Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire TS12 1LQ available. Photographs for item 12 are not for reuse and are published here by kind permission of the Child Printed by Solopress, 9 Stock Road, Southend-on-Sea, Migrants Trust. Essex, SS2 5QF INTRODUCTION 11 HERTHA AYRTON 23 MARY JACKSON 01 JUNE ALMEIDA SUSAN BLACK DOROTHY VAUGHAN At the start of the great COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, we Of course, we have already seen women rise to positions of 12 24 SUSAN MICHIE were all urged to stay at home to protect the NHS and save responsibility and authority but there is still a long way to go. 02 DELIA DERBYSHIRE KATHERINE JOHNSON lives; group meetings and social gatherings were banned. 13 25 This volume pays our personal tributes to outstanding 03 SARAH GILBERT Members of Middlesbrough Soroptimists considered what women, past and present. We hope it encourages women 14 ADA LOVELACE 26 MARGARET BURBIDGE they could do to keep everyone engaged until normal life and girls to aim high and be the best they can be. The world 04 ELIZABETH ANDERSON was restored. They agreed to put together a book about will be a better place for it. women scientists and the contribution they had made to 15 GERTRUDE BELL 27 ANGELA MCLEAN expanding knowledge in a range of scientific fields. These 05 LILIAN LINDSAY would be people who had personally impressed them. Each INTRODUCTION 16 MILLICENT FAWCETT 28 SOUMYA SWAMINATHAN contributor would say why this woman was so important to 06 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE them. The work carried out by these women, in some cases, 17 MARGARET HUMPHREYS 29 RACHEL CARSON As we endeavour to be a multi-cultural and multi-racial was directly relevant to what we were experiencing during 07 DEVI SRIDHAR organisation, we are especially pleased that this volume these unique times. 18 ANGELA MERKEL 30 DOROTHY HODGKIN features women from several countries and ethnic Soroptimists worldwide promote women’s position in 08 MARY SEACOLE backgrounds. Some scientists have only come to the fore society. They want to see women valued as much as men K.K. SHAILAJA MARIE CURIE during the period of this pandemic and deserve to be 19 31 and succeeding in any field they choose. To quote from SABRINA COHEN-HATTON recognised for their vital contributions at this time. 09 Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, ‘Women feel just as men feel; 20 KERRINE BRYAN 32 SAMEERA MOUSSA Our research has been very revealing. There are so many they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their 10 ROSALIND FRANKLIN women scientists of note. We have had to be selective in efforts as much as their brothers do... it is narrow-minded 21 KATHRYN SULLIVAN OUR CONTRIBUTORS those we have chosen. We hope these brief accounts will in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they encourage readers to explore more fully the lives of these ought to confine themselves to making puddings and 22 ANNE PRESS amazing women. knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and CONTENTS embroidering bags’. At the time of writing, the world remains in the midst of a virus pandemic. It is a coronavirus. Many people Throughout the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, British politicians leading the response are relying heavily on have become sick. Many have died. Normal life has come to a standstill for months. Many small businesses scientists. In fact, they have said they are following the science. Scientists and science-based professionals of are at risk of going under. During this time, I have come across the name of Dr June Almeida. She, in 1964, all kinds are needed, some dealing with the immediacy of illness, some with the collection and interpretation 01 discovered the first human coronavirus, of the same type as the one affecting so many people across the world 02 of data, some with finding a vaccination or cure, others with finding testing and tracing techniques. in 2020. The name of this new virus is SARS-CoV-2, standing for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Technologists are also needed to produce new equipment, such as ventilators, at speed. Health behaviourists Coronavirus 2. It is the strain of coronavirus that causes the illness coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. It are also essential, as some human behaviours need to be changed very quickly and those behaviours emerged in China in late 2019 and is genetically similar to coronaviruses that affect bats.. maintained for a period of time, then eased. For example, frequent handwashing and social distancing has had The severity of the illness varies, with many cases being fatal. Children are less seriously affected, and less to become the norm. Getting the public to accept and continue with these measures is crucial to the likely to acquire the disease. containment of the epidemic. An understanding of human psychology and its application to a crisis situation is therefore essential.

Dr Almeida came from humble beginnings. Born in Amongst the many scientific minds that the government 1930, the daughter of a bus driver, she was brought THE FIRST HUMAN is relying upon is Susan Michie, Professor of Health ADVISOR IN BEHAVIOURAL up in a Glasgow tenement. She left school at 16 and CORONAVIRUS DISCOVERED Psychology at University College London. She became SCIENCE got a job at Glasgow Royal Infirmary as a laboratory part of the COVID-19 Behavioural Science Advisory technician. She later moved to London and married JUNE DALZIEL Group, a sub-group of SAGE, the government’s SUSAN Enriques Almeida, a Venezuelan artist. Later they Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. moved to Toronto with their daughter. June began ALMEIDA Professor Michie took a degree at Oxford in MICHIE working at the Ontario Cancer Institute. It was here that Experimental Psychology and later studied clinical she developed her skills in using an electron virologist psychology. She is a chartered clinical psychologist health microscope which enabled better visualisation of and health psychologist. She is Director of UCL’s Centre psychologist viruses. Back in London, in 1964, she identified the first 1930–2007 for Behavioural Change Research Group. Her research human coronavirus. has encompassed several fields of psychology, 1955– Dr Almeida was awarded a doctorate at the including interventions to change behaviour. She has She also asserted that this advice to the public Postgraduate Medical School in London. Her work served as President of the European Health Psychology needs to be supported environmentally. Hence, we helps speed up our understanding of the virus which is Society and Chair of the British Psychological Society’s have seen hand sanitisers installed almost everywhere now devastating the world. A true pioneer, Dr Almeida Division of Health Psychology. She became a Fellow of and stickers on floors reminding the public to keep two died in 2007 aged 77. the British Psychological Society in 2001. metres apart. Professor Michie has, amongst other things, strongly She is an important media spokesperson on COVID- advocated regular handwashing as a means to control 19. Alongside her academic work she is involved in the virus. Trade Unionism and is a member of the British Photo COVID-19 virus Communist Party. As with all viruses, a vaccine is a high priority to prevent further or repeated spread. This is imperative in the In June 2020, the Oxford vaccine trial looked set to 2020 coronavirus outbreak across the world as the virus is highly transmissible and, whilst many people only be successful. They would know by late August. have mild illness, others are seriously affected and many have died. Older people, those with serious 03 underlying health conditions and people from the BAME communities are at greatest risk. So, across the world Manufacturing processes had already been set up in there is a race to develop an effective vaccine. anticipation. The manufacturer, AstraZeneca, had agreed to do this for zero profit and had plans in place to produce 300 million doses. On 20 July it was reported that the vaccine being tested against coronavirus both stimulated an immune response Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the and was safe. But we are still waiting. University of Oxford, a specialist in the development of A VITAL VACCINATION Because of her groundbreaking and vital research vaccines against influenza and new viruses. She Professor Gilbert featured in The Times Science Search for a vaccine graduated with a BSc in Biological Sciences from the Power List in May 2020. An article about her also University of East Anglia and then was awarded a PhD SARAH featured in The Indian Express on 24th July 2020. from the University of Hull for research into the genetics She has managed to combine all this with being the and biochemistry of a type of yeast. In 1994 she GILBERT mother of triplets! She gives credit to her very began to carry out research on malaria. She became a supportive partner. Reader in Vaccinology at Oxford in 2004 and vaccinologist Professor in 2010. She then started work on the creation of novel flu 1962– vaccinations. In particular, she looked at vaccines which embed a pathogenic protein inside a safe virus. Such viral vaccines can be used against viral diseases, malaria and cancer. The vaccines she worked on, instead of stimulating an antibody response, trigger the immune system to create T-cells that are specific to the invading virus. She now leads the work to produce a vaccine against the current coronavirus. Her aim is to develop her research team to be the leaders in vaccine research in the world. View of All Souls College, Oxford University COVID-19 virus Doctors are at the forefront of the response to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak as they try to treat the many All three women were to achieve fame; Elizabeth in In 1870 she obtained a patients with this new disease. Many work long hours. Some have transferred from their usual speciality to medicine; Millicent in the suffrage movement and degree in medicine from support intensive care. Some doctors have died. 04 By 2020, women are well accepted in the medical profession. It was not always so. Emily as the co-founder of England’s first women’s the Sorbonne in Paris, college – Girton, Cambridge. which admitted women Elizabeth’s route to becoming a doctor was an students. She learned Garrett Anderson as Mayor of arduous one as women were not in those days French in order to Aldeburgh, November 1908 expected to practise medicine, and several medical achieve this. She then colleges rejected her purely on those grounds. To became the first woman in Britain to be appointed to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman to circumvent this, Garrett studied related subjects such a medical post – at the East London Hospital for qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. She AGAINST THE ODDS as anatomy and physiology. She was admitted to Children. In 1874 she co-founded the London School overcame tremendous odds to achieve this. The Society of Apothecaries and, after further of Medicine for Women and became a lecturer She was born in London, the second of 11 children. The studies, she was licensed by this society to practise there, the only medical school to offer courses for family moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk where her father ELIZABETH GARRETT medicine. Following that, the Society amended its women. This later became The Royal Free Hospital, built the mansion, Alde House. Elizabeth’s education regulations to exclude any further women. It was now part of the medical school of University College was varied. She first learned from her mother, then she ANDERSON only in 1876 that a new Medical Act allowed British London. In 1873 she gained membership of the was taught by a governess and later attended a medical authorities to license all qualified applicants British Medical Association. This later excluded private school. She complained that she was not taught doctor regardless of their gender. Being unable to practise women for several years. science and maths. When she was 18, with her sister in a hospital, Garrett set up in private practice in As well as this extremely demanding and pioneering she visited some friends in Gateshead and met Emily 1836–1917 London in 1865. Business was slow at first, but a career, in 1871 Garrett married James Anderson and Davies, who was to become a lifelong friend. When cholera outbreak led to people being happy to see a had three children, one of whom died in infancy from America’s first woman doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell, doctor of either meningitis. Her older daughter, Louisa, eventually visited London, Elizabeth Garrett arranged to meet her. gender. By then she became a doctor. Emily Davies and Garrett, meeting once at Alde had opened the St. Elizabeth was also active in the suffrage movement. House, talked about women’s rights and Mary’s Dispensary After retiring from medical practice she returned to employment opportunities. They selected careers for for Women and Aldeburgh to live and there, in 1908, she became themselves and Garrett’s young sister, Millicent, who Children which had mayor of the town, the first woman mayor in later became Millicent Fawcett. Garrett was to open up 3,000 new patients England. She died in 1917. There remain to this day the medical profession to women; Davies, university in the first year. many buildings and institutions named after her. education; and Fawcett, politics and votes for women. Garrett Anderson with Emmeline Pankhurst on Black Friday, 18 November 1910 During the lockdown, most dental practices are closed and only emergencies can be dealt with. It has been She set up practice first in London. She married reported that some people are pulling out their own teeth! Robert in 1905 and moved back to Edinburgh in I thought it interesting to study Britain’s first female dentist and found an excellent resume in the English 05 Heritage members’ magazine of July 2019. Lilian featured in this publication because she has been celebrated practice with him. She and Robert returned to with a blue plaque (very appropriate for a dentist!). London in 1920 and lived for 15 years in a flat above the British Dental Association headquarters in Russell Square. Lilian focused on research and published many papers. She also developed the BDA’s library from Lilian (born Murray, the third of eleven children) 360 books to 10,000 and collected objects to FIRST QUALIFIED WOMAN create a museum of dentistry. Russell Square, London attended Camden School for Girls, North London. She DENTIST IN RITAIN defied her headteacher, who had decided that Lilian B She learned French, German, Latin and some old should become a teacher of the deaf and dumb. English and Spanish to help with her research. Lilian’s interview for a place at The National Dental LILIAN Robert Lindsay died in 1930. Lilian then became Hospital in 1892 was a bit like some of the practice sub-editor of The British Dental Journal for 20 years. during the pandemic lockdown of 2020. The Dean LINDSAY CBE In 1946 she became the first female president of the interviewed her through an open window. This, BDA and was awarded the CBE. She died in 1960, however, was not to avoid the transmission of any dentist aged 88. Truly a life of achievement! infection, but because he thought her presence in the A blue plaque was placed in 2013 on the wall of her building would be a distraction to the male students! 1871–1960 childhood home at 3 Hungerford Place, Islington. Those were the days! This house was later demolished in a redevelopment Lilian was not admitted to this Dental Hospital. Instead, project. The plaque was rescued and preserved by she went to the more enlightened Edinburgh Dental English Heritage and is now to be found, Hospital and School. Even here she faced opposition. appropriately, at 23 Russell Square, headquarters of One of the staff remarked ‘I am afraid, madam, that the BDA. you are taking the bread out of some poor fellow’s mouth’. At Edinburgh she met her future husband, Robert, a member of the teaching staff. She also gained the Wilson Medal for dental surgery and Early dental surgery pathology. In 1895 she graduated and became Britain’s first qualified female dentist. Edinburgh cityscape Nurses, along with their medical and paramedical colleagues, are at the front line in dealing with the 2020 Conditions were so bad that a prefabricated hospital promoting and organising the nursing profession. pandemic. Public health practice has become more important than ever before. was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Today she is well remembered. The Nightingale Most people know of Florence Nightingale as the pioneer of modern, professional nursing. Fewer people are 06 aware of her leadership in public health. The date of her birth, 12 May 1820, is exactly 200 years before the shipped to the Dardanelles…. an early precursor of Pledge is taken by new nurses and the Florence pandemic was at its height in the UK, and 2020 has been designated The International Year of the Nurse and the Nightingale Hospitals rapidly built in the 2020 Nightingale Medal is the highest distinction a nurse Midwife, in her honour. pandemic in the UK. In the Crimea she reduced the can achieve. Hospitals traditionally had Nightingale death rate of soldiers from 42% to 2%. It was here wards and the pandemic brought forth Nightingale that she acquired her nickname ‘The Lady with the hospitals, prisons and even courts of justice. The i Lamp’. newspaper reported on 20th July 2020 that some of Florence was born in the Italian city of Florence to a Florence established training programmes in the UK her letters, written between 1892 and 1894 had wealthy British family who moved back to England in PIONEER OF NURSING AND for nurses. She introduced trained nurses into the been unearthed and were expected to fetch 1821. Florence was well educated in history, PUBLIC HEALTH workhouses of that era and took them with her to the thousands of pounds at auction. mathematics, Italian, classical literature and Crimea. In 1907 she became the first woman to be awarded philosophy. She had a remarkable ability for collecting FLORENCE It is salient to reflect on how so many of her ideas the Order of Merit. A blue plaque in her memory is and analysing data. She was clearly a young lady of and principles have been reflected in the in South Street, Mayfair and there is a statue of her great ability, and her parents were shocked when she NIGHTINGALE management of our modern-day pandemic. They in Waterloo Place, London. declared that she wanted to become a nurse. It was not also inform some of the UN’s 17 Sustainable then the profession it is now. social reformer, Development Goals. In 1853 she became superintendent of a small hospital statistician & On a practical level, she ordered supplies for in Harley Street. In 1854 a cholera outbreak occurred hospitals, reformed the workhouses and was a in Soho, London. She volunteered at The Middlesex nurse strong advocate of hand washing. She also Hospital. She dismissed the idea of micro-organisms as 1820–1910 recognised the role of ‘home nurses’ in supporting being responsible for infectious disease, then a families in the community. developing theory. She was a strong believer in the Her social reforms included advocating hunger relief benefits of fresh air and cleanliness. Working as a in India, abolishing prostitution laws that were harsh nurse in the Crimea between 1854 and 1856 in the to women and encouraging the greater participation Nightingale receiving the wounded at Scutari, by Jerry Barrett face of lack of medication and food, poor hygiene and of women in the workforce. mass infection, she demonstrated a 50% reduction in Florence had several suitors but rejected marriage in mortality in soldiers who benefitted from good favour of her calling. She spent her later years ventilation, sanitation, cleanliness and a better diet. The global pandemic of 2020 is not only causing high levels of illness, death, pressure on health services and and link with the UK one. The proceedings and isolation, it seems also to cause division and anger. There are differences of opinion about where the virus membership of the Scottish SAGE are published and originated, how best to control it and treat it, who is most at risk and what individual freedoms should be 07 curtailed and for how long. Key personnel are not only those at the front-line of care and treatment but those thus are transparent. who specialise in public health. Devi Sridhar served on the Scottish COVID-19 Advisory Group. As a result of Professor Sridhar has had a high public profile expressing her views about the pandemic she was dubbed a ‘so-called expert’ and began to receive serious abuse on social media for what some have deemed to be political statements. during the pandemic, appearing regularly on various news programmes. She is a member of Lyiola Solanke’s Black Professors Forum. She serves on the editorial board of the journal Public Health. Devi Sridhar was born in Miami to Indian parents. She Amongst her several publications is Governing graduated in Biology from the University of Miami and EXPERTISE IN PUBLIC HEALTH Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? subsequently gained an MPhil and DPhil from the AT A TIME OF CRISIS Ebola epidemic, West Africa University of Oxford Global Economic Governance Programme. Her research focused on malnutrition in DEVI She and a co-worker published a recent blog ‘Why India. In 2007 she produced a book The Battle against Scotland’s slow and steady approach to COVID-19 Hunger. SRIDHAR is working’ in which she described the Scottish In 2011 she became Associate Professor in global government’s strategy for dealing with the pandemic. health politics at Oxford. She serves on the World public health Though challenges remain, they are working towards Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the health professor a zero-COVID-19 future. In July 2020 they were industry. She started research on the rise of public- working to reduce community transmission, meaning private partnerships in global health governance and 1984– that the main threat would come from people suggested that their non-transparent accountability and entering the country. They have built up an effective effectiveness should be investigated. She worked on Test and Protect system, so that people can be tested the international response to the West African Ebola and, if positive, isolated and their contacts traced, Virus epidemic. She established ten essential reforms to not through an app but by building up existing public Parliament building, Edinburgh prevent and respond to the next pandemic. In 2014 at health capacity in local Health Boards. The Scottish age 30 she was promoted to full Professor and Chair government also established its own Scientific at the University of Edinburgh and became the Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to parallel founding Director of the Global Health Governance programme. She has advised the Scottish Government on how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Ebola virus When Nurse Practitioner and Soroptimist Geraldine Nuttall was invited to contribute to this lockdown project, Undeterred, Mary raised her own funds to pay for Mary travelled back to Jamaica before returning to an obvious choice of subject was Mary Seacole. However, none of us could have predicted how poignantly her passage. Her plan was to build a hotel which England and offering her services at the Indian significant that choice would turn out to be, given the murder of George Floyd in the US and the rise of the 08 Black Lives Matter campaign here in the UK. would provide good food to sustain the officers. In Rebellion in 1857 and the Franco Prussian War in the event, she set up an informal clinic where she 1870, but she was not able to travel. applied the traditional Caribbean herbal remedies When Mary died in 1881, she was buried in Kensal which her mother had taught her. Although not a Green Catholic Cemetery in London and simply trained medic, records showed that Mary was held passed from people’s memories. in high regard by the troops on the frontline who However, Mary’s contribution to nursing was finally Mary Seacole was born in 1805 in Jamaica, which recorded anecdotal evidence of her work. celebrated in 2004 when she was voted one of the was then under British rule. Her Scottish father was ONE OF THE GREATEST The conditions were awful and ten times as many greatest Black Britons in history. A blue plaque serving in the British Army and her Jamaican mother BLACK BRITONS IN HISTORY deaths were through disease as were through war marking her London home and a statue outside St. was a practitioner of traditional Caribbean herbal wounds. Mary treated soldiers on both sides of the Thomas’s Hospital were erected in her memory. medicine, a skill that she passed on to her daughter. MARY conflict and refused to take payment for her work. Mary is now remembered as a nurse who used her The family ran a boarding house for injured soldiers When Mary returned to London after the war, she caring skills to alleviate human suffering rather than and, using her business skills, in 1851 Mary moved to SEACOLE was destitute. Mary survived thanks to the efforts of as a highly qualified person who saved lives. Panama and opened a restaurant. Whilst there, Mary the troops she had helped who showed their Nevertheless, she bravely did what she did at great successfully treated victims of cholera with traditional nurse gratitude for her services by raising money to help personal cost and risk to herself. She changed the remedies. her and from the proceeds from the sale of her world through small kindnesses and was an Being of mixed race, Mary and her family had few civil 1805–1881 biography The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs inspiration to others. rights – they could not vote, hold public office or enter Seacole in Many Lands. Her place in history is now assured and she will not the professions. This would possibly explain why Mary be forgotten. In July 2020, the i newspaper reported never received formal training. In 1836, Mary married that a bust of her was about to go to auction and Edwin Seacole but, sadly, the marriage was brief, as was expected to fetch £700 to £1000. It was later he died in 1844. In 1854, at the age of 49, hearing reported that her face is being considered to be about the Crimean conflict between Russia and allied represented on British coins. So far, no-one from the forces including the British, Mary travelled to London to BAME communities has appeared on our coins or offer her services as a nurse. Every authority she banknotes! approached refused her offer. Historians still speculate over whether this was because of her race, her age, or Mary Seacole statue, St Thomas's Hospital her lack of formal qualifications. I first read about this lady in a magazine during the lockdown in April 2020. This particular publication, Candis, Her particular area of interest was how stress tends to highlight each month a woman of outstanding achievement. I found the story of Sabrina Cohen- impacts on our decision-making processes. Hatton remarkable. 09 The pandemic we face in 2020 has caused enormous trauma to so many people – patients, relatives, hospital She has used this training to research the choices we staff, carers, ambulance crews and many others who have seen illness, death and distress on a scale not seen make in the heat of the moment. Her findings suggest in recent times. Dr Cohen-Hatton’s research is especially relevant to this. that we rely on ‘gut instinct’, based on memories which may be buried deep within the subconscious. This has contributed to the training of fire officers enabling them to operate at a high level of situation Sabrina was born in South Wales. Her mother was of awareness. Jewish heritage and her father Moroccan, born in A REMARKABLE LIFE Her first book, The Heat of the Moment, was Israel. When she was 15 her father died from a brain published in 2019 by Penguin. She has gained many tumour. Her life then became chaotic and she ended awards and honours and is an ambassador for The up at 15 living on the streets, studying for her GCSEs SABRINA Big Issue, which she believes saved her life. and selling The Big Issue. This lady has shown great tenacity in achieving her She suffered antisemitic attacks. She sometimes slept in COHEN-HATTON ambitions. She attributes this trait to her grandmother derelict buildings or in a van. She managed to scrape who, in Morocco in 1948, had her head hacked together enough money for a deposit on a flat and at neuropsychologist open with a machete during an anti-Jewish massacre. She was found alive by her husband 18 she joined the Fire Service, becoming the only 1984– Firefighter woman firefighter at her station. She is now, at only 36 underneath a pile of bodies in a morgue. She and 5ft 1”, a Chief Fire Officer. She is married, with survived! one daughter. Her husband is also a Fire Officer. He was once involved in a major incident where he could easily have died and someone else was severely injured. Sabrina attended this incident and was so relieved to find that her husband was unharmed. This, and learning that 80% of industrial accidents are due to human error, caused her to study psychology at night. She eventually completed a PhD in neuropsychology.

Fire fighting Homelessness I became interested in Rosalind Franklin through the enthusiasm of a friend, herself a scientist and a feminist, Franklin resigned after one year and went on to In 1953 Franklin transferred to Birkbeck College who has long been an advocate of Rosalind Franklin’s work and is quick to point out that it was actually she, a become an assistant research officer with the British where she was recruited by John Desmond Burnal, a woman and an accomplished crystallographer, who first developed X-ray diffraction images of DNA which led to 10 the discovery of the DNA double helix structure. As a result of that discovery, three male colleagues: James Coal Utilisation Research Association where she crystallographer who was known for promoting Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. studied the porosity of coal and gained her PhD in women crystallographers. In 1954, as a senior Franklin had died in 1958 of ovarian cancer aged just 37 and Watson had suggested that she be awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry posthumously but, at that time, the Nobel Committee did not make posthumous 1945. When war broke out, she volunteered as an researcher, Franklin met Aaron Klug and began a nominations. Air Raid Warden. successful collaboration. During the coronavirus lockdown, I have had the time to write something of her life and work, so that she may Franklin worked both in London and Paris where she When her research grant from the Agricultural become better known. developed a love of travel and of all things French. Research Council expired in 1957, Franklin was Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born in North London in In 1946 with the help of her friend, Adrienne Weill, a granted a one-year extension. 1920 into an affluent and influential British Jewish LEADING VIROLOGIST OF French refugee who had studied under Marie Curie, Although by now very sick, having been diagnosed family who had taken in Jewish refugee children at the HER TIME Franklin was introduced to Marcel Mathieu, Director with ovarian cancer, she worked until the end, and end of WW1. of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique her last piece of research was into the polio virus. Her father, Ellis, a Liberal, had taught at London’s ROSALIND which led to her appointment as a researcher at the As a scientist, Franklin rejected religion, but never Working Men’s College and her great uncle, Viscount Laboratoire Central des Services Chiminiques de actually abandoned Jewish traditions, describing (Herbert) Samuel succeeded Lloyd George as Leader FRANKLIN l’État in Paris. It was here that Franklin began work herself to a friend as always ‘consciously a Jew’. of the Liberal Party from 1931–1935 and had been on X-ray diffraction and in 1950 she was granted a Rosalind Franklin died in 1958. Her work formed the Home Secretary from 1931–1932 in Ramsay chemist & fellowship at King’s College, London, where she was basis of later work on molecular structure, notably Macdonald’s National Government. crystallographer assigned to work on DNA. the construction of the DNA model by Crick and Rosalind Franklin had attended private schools and in 1920–1958 Watson in 1953. It wasn’t until 15 years later that 1931 was sent to St. Paul’s in West London, one of the Franklin’s contribution was acknowledged, but she few girls’ schools which taught physics and chemistry. was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. The young Rosalind excelled in science, Latin and However, The Indian Express of 24th July 2020 ran sports. In 1938 she went to Newnham College, an article on her as it was her 100th birth Cambridge where, after graduation, she was awarded anniversary. They quoted science historian Patricia a research fellowship in physical chemistry under Fara who said she was ‘a symbol of male prejudice’ Ronald Norrish. This did not end happily as she but went on to describe her as the leading virologist struggled to establish a working relationship with him, of her time. as she found him disappointing. Rosalind Franklin Photo DNA double helix Glancing through a very interesting book on women scientists to start this lockdown project, I noticed this member of the Institute of Electrical Engineering lady’s name and thought it rang a vague bell in my mind, so I searched further. I was correct. She was an for her work on electric arc lighting. She was alumna of the college I attended at Cambridge – Girton, a lovely place on the Huntingdon Road, about three 11 miles from the city centre. We were all very fit at that college as we had to cycle in and out every day for also awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal lectures and lab sessions. Of course, she was there long before I was! Society in 1906. She published a paper ‘The Electric Arc’, after which she was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This proposal was rejected as married women in those days were ineligible for this honour. Hertha invented the Flapper fan, which directed Hertha was born Phoebe Sarah Marks in WOMAN OF MANY Portsea, Hampshire. Her father, a watchmaker, A gas away from the trenches in WW1. TALENTS She was a strong supporter of the suffrage was a Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Poland. He Girton College, Cambridge married local girl Alice Moss, a seamstress. movement. Through this she met fellow-suffragist Sarah moved to live with her aunts in London at HERTHA did not award degrees to women in those days. and co-founder of Girton College, Barbara the age of nine, her widowed mother having (In passing, it is worth mentioning that a former Bodichon, who supported Hertha financially seven other children to care for. When aged 16 AYRTON Middlesbrough Soroptimist, Elizabeth Dawson, through her studies and her career. Hertha was she became a governess. was much later in a similar position, and only also a close friend of Marie Curie. She even has In her teens, she adopted the first name Hertha mathematician received her degree years afterwards.) a song written about her! as a gesture of independence from convention; Hertha subsequently received a BSc from the Hertha died in 1923, the she also became an agnostic, though she & electrical University of London. In London, she taught result of an insect bite. A blue always respected her Jewish heritage. engineer maths and devised mathematical puzzles and plaque at 41 Norfolk Hertha went to Girton College, Cambridge, began her inventions. She went on to register 26 Square, Paddington, then an entirely women’s college, where she 1854–1923 patents, for mathematical dividers, arc lamps commemorates her studied mathematics. Here she also constructed and electrodes and air propellants. In 1884 she achievements. a sphygmomanometer, and amongst other attended evening classes on electricity delivered The book I referred to at the beginning is 101 pursuits, formed a mathematical club. She by Professor William Ayrton, whom she Awesome Women who Transformed Science, passed the Mathematics Tripos in 1880 but subsequently married and they had one written by Claire Philip, illustrated by Isobel could only receive a certificate as Cambridge daughter. Hertha became the first women Munoz and published in 2020 by Arcturus. For many of us, our use of computers has increased dramatically in recent years. Equally, we see their use in She has been a guest on Desert Island Discs. As Sue all aspects of life from supermarket shopping to booking a GP appointment. Computers hugely speed up is noted for her dyed red hair it is not surprising that processes and enable information to be stored efficiently. Their use in the 2020 pandemic will have contributed 12 enormously to combating it. her chosen luxury item to take on the desert island Some of us, brought up when computers were not in common use, have tremendous respect for those who was red hair dye! Having succeeded in a male- understand how they work. One such is Sue Black, Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at the University of Durham. Hers is a very interesting story. dominated work environment it is unsurprising that she is an advocate of women’s equality. She was to be the Women’s Equality Party candidate for the 2020 London Mayor election but had to withdraw Sue was born in Hampshire in 1962. As a child her for health reasons. ambition was to drive a London bus. She left school at ‘IFICAN DO IT, SO Sue was awarded the OBE for services to 16, married at 20 and soon had three children. By 25 CAN YOU’ technology in 2016. A truly remarkable story. As she said in an article for The working rebuilt bombe now at The National Museum she was a single mum in a women’s refuge, her of Computing on Bletchley Park. husband having threatened her and her children. She SUSAN ELIZABETH New Scientist in July 2019, ‘If I can do it, so can decided to improve her education and took an Access you’. When asked in the same article which scientist, course in the evenings, which allowed her to move on BLACK OBE living or dead, she would most like a conversation to university. She graduated in 1993 with a degree in with she responded, ‘Ada Lovelace’, considered the computing from London South Bank University. She computer first computer programmer. This is all the more then worked for a PhD in software engineering, scientist fascinating as Ada lived between 1815 and 1852. achieving this in 2000. In 2018 she became a Augusta Ada King, Countess Lovelace through professor at the University of Durham. She is also an 1962– marriage to the 1st Earl of Lovelace, was the Honorary Professor at University College, London. daughter of Lord and Lady Byron. We decided to Sue is a staunch advocate of women in computing. She write about her too and she appears later in this has set up Techmums, #techmums in 2011 to enable book. mothers understand what their children are doing on their computers and in this way has helped many A Colossus Mark 2 computer at Bletchley Park, 1943. women get to grips with modern technology. Her achievements are many. She was instrumental in saving Bletchley Park, the WW2 codebreaking facility, and has produced a book with this title.

Photo courtesy of Ali Tollervey As we find ways to survive the lockdown, many of us have taken to ‘binge watching’ favourite TV Through her work, Derbyshire formed a distinctive Elsa Stansfield and Madelon Hooykaas. programmes. Right up there with Bake Off, Strictly and Game of Thrones is Dr Who, but I wonder how many genre of radio feature, blending electronic music and If she was the first composer at the BBC to show that people know the history of its original, iconic theme tune or the woman who composed it and who, in 13 launching her career, encountered barriers of both gender and class? soundscapes with a poetic collage of interviews with 'radiophonics' could be beautiful, she was unafraid Delia Derbyshire was born in Coventry in 1937 and grew up in what she described as an upper-working-class members of the public. Her creation ‘The Inventions’ to be unsettling and menacing. Yet, by 1973, family. At school, she demonstrated an affinity for the potential of everyday objects to create music. Distinctive sounds from her childhood would haunt her later work. There are echoes of the air raid sirens during the Blitz was remarkable both for technical achievement and Derbyshire herself was feeling unsettled at the BBC while the clogs of factory workers bustling along the cobbled streets of Preston (where she was evacuated the fact that they privileged the voices of everyday and what she perceived as an increasingly during the Second World War) are suggested in the 'clip clop' rhythms of pieces like Pot au Feu (1968). people and their thoughts on weighty philosophical commercial environment that was no longer subjects, such as the possibility of life after death and sympathetic to her creative principles. She left the When at school, Delia excelled in Music and the experience of ageing, at a time when the Radiophonic Workshop and relocated to north east Mathematics, falling in love with the work of MUSIC THROUGH SCIENCE portrayal of British working class communities and Cumbria for several years before returning to London composers like Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. When individuals was limited and often clichéd. in 1978 and then settling in Northampton with her Delia won a scholarship to Cambridge, electronic The ‘Inventions’ was a collaborative work with partner, Clive Blackburn. music was not yet on the curriculum. Her interest in that DELIA colleague Barry Bermange, but in a radio interview Her post-BBC years have sometimes been described field was furthered by a visit to the Brussels World's Fair he does not acknowledge Derbyshire by name and as long decline into poor health and complete in 1958 where she experienced Edgard Varèse's DERBYSHIRE downplays her role somewhat. Delia introduced new withdrawal from music. However, because her Poème Électronique installed in Le Corbusier's pavilion. and previously unheard voices – quite literally – to public output reduced, many people thought that she This was a groundbreaking fusion of electronic music, mathematician & the BBC and her work continues to encourage new had ceased to create. architecture and visual art and would have a deep musician generations to find their own creative voice. When Derbyshire died in 2001, she had started to influence on Derbyshire's future practice. After Derbyshire's reputation was burgeoning. Despite the collaborate on new music with Sonic Boom as the graduation, Delia sought a position with record 1937–2001 BBC policy in the 1960s of not giving individual available technology had begun to catch up with her producers Decca, but she was told that women were credits to Workshop staff, it is clear that she was held thinking. She influenced and is admired by bands not employed in their studios, so she joined the BBC in in high regard by a number of senior figures at the and artists as diverse as Pink Floyd, Orbital, 1960 as a trainee assistant studio manager. BBC. Portishead, the Kronos Quartet and Cosey Fanni In 1962 she requested a transfer to the BBC She collaborated with major figures in Britain's arts Tutti. Concerts and new works are increasingly Radiophonic Workshop and she would remain there scene, ranging from Peter Hall and the Royal commissioned in her honour, not least through the until 1973. In 1963, her arrangement of the Doctor Shakespeare Company to Yoko Ono and Ted educational charity Delia Derbyshire Day. Who theme would contribute massively to the growing Hughes as well as a rewarding extended public awareness and appreciation of electronic music collaboration in the 1970s with the pioneering artists in Britain. Writing about Sue Black led me to consider the life and works of Ada Lovelace. This is an interesting story. It is Earl of Lovelace in 1838, so she became Countess hard to believe that a computer programmer could have lived as long ago as the first part of the 19th century. of Lovelace. They had three children, the first named The central character in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Thomasina Coverly, is a young prodigiously talented 14 mathematician and was based on Ada Lovelace. Byron after her father. They had several homes, including an estate in Scotland. She also had a shadier side, with rumours of extra-marital affairs and gambling debts. Yet Ada died at only 36 from uterine cancer. One wonders what she would have achieved had she Ada was born Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate lived longer. She was, incidentally, buried next to child of poet Lord Byron. One month after Ada was PROPHET OF THE her father. born he left his wife and later left England. He died COMPUTER AGE Her life and achievements are commemorated in when Ada was eight years old. Ada’s mother promoted many ways. There is a blue plaque in St. James’s her daughter’s interest in mathematics and logic. Ada ADA Square, London. She is a character in Spyfall, part was privately educated in maths and science by tutors 2, the second episode of Dr Who series 12. The including Mary Somerville, researcher and scientific LOVELACE computer language Ada is named after her, as are Ada Lovelace aka Augusta Ada Byron, 1843 or 1850 many places and buildings. author. Her talents in this field led her to a long working a rare daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet relationship and friendship with Charles Babbage, the mathematician As of November 2015 all new British passports have ‘father of computers’, who had produced an ‘analytical & computer Ada changed the concept of Babbage’s Analytical included an image of Lovelace and Babbage on engine’. She was introduced to him by Mary programmer Engine from a number cruncher (calculator) to a pages 46 & 47. Somerville. Other well-known friends of that era were machine for manipulating symbols, even musical Ada Lovelace Day has Charles Wheatstone, Michael Faraday and Charles 1815–1852 notes. She was way ahead of her time. been celebrated on the Dickens. In many ways, Ada had a privileged life. She was second Tuesday in Ada translated an article by the Italian military the daughter of Lord and Lady Byron, and October since 2009, its engineer Luigi Menabrea on a ‘calculating engine’, granddaughter of Lady Milbanke, who provided purpose being to raise the producing a set of supplementary notes which contain much of her care. She had private tuition and profile of women in what many considered to be the first computer numbered scientists among her friends and Science, Technology, programme – an algorithm designed to be carried out acquaintances. In 1835 she married William, 8th Engineering and by a machine. Baron King, making her Lady King. He was made Mathematics. Charles Babbage's Difference Engine I have chosen Gertrude Bell because she was local to Middlesbrough and very much a pioneer ahead of her the highest summit of the southern French Alps known As a diplomat, she was instrumental in forging links time. I also had a good, long book about her to read during the lockdown! as the Barre des Ecrins, plus many others. with Iraq, serving in Basra and Baghdad, 15 She was also a great linguist, writer, archaeologist culminating in a Treaty of Alliance between Iraq and and traveller, crossing the Arabian desert six times in Great Britain which led to 20 years of British 12 years. She became very familiar with these occupancy. Middle-eastern lands and peoples. This familiarity Her skills as an Arabist and nation builder were made her a key figure in the politics of that area. She instrumental in helping to bring Faisal bin Hussein to knew T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the throne of Iraq. She helped mediate between the Gertrude Bell was born at her grandfather’s house, worked with him to support Arab independence. British and the Arabs and between Sunnis, Shias and Washington New Hall, County Durham, on 14th July DAUGHTER OF THE In World War 1 she served the British Army Kurds. 1868. In 1878 the family moved Red Barns, Redcar, ARABIAN DESERT Intelligence Unit in Cairo and helped get British She established an archaeological museum and a which was at that time in the County of Yorkshire. The soldiers across the desert. School of Archaeology in Iraq. The Iraqi Museum in building is still there, but in disrepair. Her father was Sir GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN Baghdad preserves some of the country’s culture and Hugh Bell who paid for the cost of a new grammar history, including relics of the Mesopotamian school in Middlesbrough which bore his name. Sir BELL civilisation. One wing of the museum is named after Hugh had many business and philanthropic interests in her. the North East. He made sure his workers were well archaeologist Gertrude never married. The love of her life was Dick paid and cared for. He was Mayor of Middlesbrough Doughty Wylie, a married man of the Royal Welsh three times and amongst many other initiatives, he 1868–1926 Fusiliers, who had no intention of divorcing his wife. developed the Middlesbrough Winter Garden for the Eventually the affair ended leaving Gertrude benefit of local people and an alternative to public heartbroken. houses. This, in the Dundas area, was demolished in Gertrude died in the early hours of 12th July 1926 1963. two days before her 58th birthday. Gertrude attended Oxford University where she Many tributes have been paid to her, though there obtained a 1st class degree in Modern History – the A meeting between Arab, Bedouin and British officials have also been criticisms of some of her decisions. around April 17–27, 1921, at Amir Abdullah ibn Hussein's first woman to do so. A film Queen of the Desert portrays much of her life. camp at Amman, Jordan She was born into a world of privilege and plenty; however, she declined her riches to enter the politics and life of the Arab people. Gertrude was strong in vitality and extremely fond of mountaineering, tackling In January I had spent my birthday in London visiting the usual tourist sites and we had walked through She was a Suffragist, not a Suffragette, in that she arguments proved useful in her career as a suffragist, Parliament Square where we saw the statue which had been erected on 24th April 2018 to commemorate felt what was right for her personally, and for the gaining her a reputation as a good speaker and Millicent Fawcett, as part of the celebrations for the centenary of the passing of the Representation of the 16 People Act. NUWSS, was to adhere strictly to the principles of lecturer. During lockdown I regularly watched several of the quiz programmes on TV. In one, the contestant had to not perpetrating any violence or lawbreaking of any Millicent was also a great supporter of worker’s decide who the first woman was to be commemorated by the erection of a statue in Parliament Square. The answer selected was Emmeline Pankhurst, which is probably the woman most people would have named. kind. rights and the overthrowing of laws which were Reflecting upon this, when asked to write about a woman who had had some significance to me during the In 1870 Millicent wrote her first book, Political based on a dual morality for men and women. She pandemic, I decided that Millicent Fawcett would be my choice. Economy for Beginners, which received praise for its was involved with the Personal Rights Association, a succinct and direct explanation, becoming a group dedicated to protecting vulnerable women. Dame Millicent Fawcett (nee Garrett) was born on 11 significant textbook for students, with ten editions She also supported the abolition of the slave trade. June 1847 in Aldeburgh and was the eighth of 10 WOMEN’S RIGHTS being published over 41 years. In 1872, she and her Millicent was also passionate about improving children. She had a relatively privileged upbringing in CAMPAIGNER husband published Essays and Lectures on Social women’s chances of benefiting from higher a prosperous middle-class family, where all the and Political Subjects, of which eight of the essays education. She served as a governor of Bedford children were encouraged by their parents to read DAME MILLICENT were written by Millicent. In 1891 she wrote the College, London and was a co-founder of widely, speak their minds and share in the political introduction to the new edition of Mary Newnham College, Cambridge in 1875. I like to interests of their father. Her sister, Elizabeth Garrett FAWCETT Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of think of her as a Soroptimist ahead of her time! Anderson, became the first female doctor in Britain. In Woman. Her capacity to simplify complex Millicent died on 5th August 1929 which meant that 1867 Millicent married Henry Fawcett who was a mathematician she had been able to go to Parliament the previous Liberal MP and a professor of Political Economy. They & suffragist year and listen to the law being passed which had one daughter, Phillipa, who in 1870 became the equalised the voting age. She felt privileged to have first woman to obtain the top score in the Cambridge 1847–1929 been witness to the fruits of her life’s works. Mathematics Tripos exams. Sadly, Millicent was Millicent Fawcett played a key role in gaining widowed at the age of only 38. women the vote and in February 2018 she was In 1865 Millicent had heard a speech on women’s announced as the winner of the BBC Radio 4 poll for rights by John Stuart Mill, who was an early advocate the most influential woman of the past 100 years. of universal women’s suffrage. This had a deep Millicent gave her name to The Fawcett Society, the impression upon her. She subsequently became UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender involved in the campaign for women’s suffrage via equality and women’s rights. legislative change and from 1890 led Britain’s largest Millicent Fawcett's Hyde Park address on women’s rights organisation, the National Union of 26th July 1913 Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). This is the story of one woman’s dedication in her profession in the UK. To leave one’s family for a year, and After returning to England she was motivated to return resulted in these grown-up children not knowing who help others find out about their background and who they really are, is inspiring. to Australia to find and help these thousands of children they were. Many developed severe emotional During the lockdown, many people have had feelings of hopelessness, loneliness and lack of control. How 17 much more would these children, taken away from their families to a strange country, have felt like this? (now adults) who had been shipped off to Australia. problems and some ended their own lives. Humphreys Margaret discussed her findings with the Chair of Notts put her life on hold to help the now middle-aged Social Services Committee who agreed to second her people. With the support of Social Services and her for a year to follow up and uncover this scandalous whole family, she reunited them with their families where situation and its subsequent cover up. possible. The mothers of the children from a variety of Her research and the help she gave to the affected Margaret Humphreys worked for Nottinghamshire backgrounds were told that the children would have a adults made a huge difference to many lives. County Council in child protection and adoption UNCOVERING A BRITISH better life with wonderful opportunities. This did not Margaret’s work led to her founding the Child Migrants services. In 1986 she received a letter from a woman in SCANDAL happen. Instead, most were placed into institutions or Trust to enable former British child migrants to reclaim Australia who was trying to find out if she had any private, often abusive, homes and their lives were of no their personal identity and be reunited with their parents family members in the UK. She believed herself to be an MARGARET consequence to anyone. They were used as slave and relatives. This was the best outcome possible in the orphan. She was trying to find her past identity, who labour. circumstances but it needed dedication, compassion she was and her family background. She met HUMPHREYS Many of the children were told their mothers had died and selflessness. Humphreys briefly just days before returning to CBE when this was not true. They were often separated from Margaret has received several accolades and awards. Australia but was astonished to find that her mother was their siblings. They tried to make sense of life as it was. Kevin Rudd and Gordon Brown, Prime Ministers of alive and well. Her story sounded unbelievable. There was little, if any, emotional support or care. This Australia and Great Britain respectively, thanked her for After much thought, Humphreys wanted to find out if it social worker her campaign when they made public apologies to was true that thousands of British children had been 1944– former child migrants. In 2011, she was made a CBE for sent to Commonwealth countries including Australia, services to disadvantaged people and in 2019 she was New Zealand and Canada after the war up to the made an Officer of the Order of Australia. This year, 1960s. Children, from three to 15 years old, were sent Margaret has received a distinguished medal of honour to these countries with the promise of a fresh start. from the social work profession and its International Margaret’s research showed that the Australian woman Federation. was telling the truth. She was one of many such Her book Empty Cradles is a best seller and was filmed children. as Oranges and Sunshine in 2011 starring Emily Humphreys travelled initially to Australia, in her own Watson. Child migrants labouring time and at her own expense, to make further enquiries Photo courtesy of the Child Migrants Trust and found total corroboration with the initial facts given. Photo courtesy of Louise Clutterbuck One of the reasons I selected German Chancellor Angela Merkel for inclusion in our project was because, Near the end of her studies, Merkel sought an manoeuvres, ascended in 2005 to the Chancellery, although she is an unlikely choice given my own political leanings, I believe that she has earned global respect assistant professorship at an engineering school. As the head of Germany’s federal government. Her as a politician and my personal respect as a physicist, a politician and a humanitarian (witness her brave 18 decision to offer sanctuary to one million desperate individuals fleeing persecution in 2015). Germany, under a condition for getting the job, Merkel was told she trajectory was dramatic and uncommon – for a her leadership, is also doing remarkably well in containing the pandemic. would need to agree to report on her colleagues to woman, for an East German and for a trained I remember becoming interested in German politics following the unification in 1990, which happened during a 16-year period of Christian-Liberal coalition, and I was enthused by the election of a Socialist-Green alliance in officers of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi). scientist with no background in law or civil service. 1998. So it was disappointing when the 2005 election resulted in a Grand Coalition and I felt unsure that the Merkel declined, using the excuse that she could not Although her early career has to some extent been election of Angela Merkel as Chancellor would be a good thing. keep secrets well enough to be an effective spy. eclipsed by her later political success, it has been Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute suggested that her ability to deal so effectively with Born in West Germany in 1954, Merkel was raised in for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in the current pandemic is because of her scientific a small East German town to the north of Berlin. Her FROM SCIENCE TO POLITICS Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. background and her ability to understand and then father was a Lutheran pastor and a target of A brilliant student, Merkel learned early on ‘not to communicate in a way that is calm, methodical and surveillance by East Germany’s security service, the put herself in the centre of things’ lest she expose practical. Stasi. ANGELA herself or her family to undue scrutiny, according to It seems that Angela Merkel’s contribution has been Merkel’s paternal grandfather, Ludwik Kasner, was a Stefan Kornelius, her official biographer and the a very good thing – for all of us. German policeman of Polish ethnicity, who had taken MERKEL foreign editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung part in Poland's struggle for independence in the early newspaper. 20th century. He married Merkel's grandmother scientist & Angela Merkel is considered a physicist and worked Margarethe, a German from Berlin, and relocated to in the area of physical chemistry earning her PhD in her hometown where he worked in the police. In 1930, politician 1986 from the University of Leipzig by writing a they Germanised the Polish name Kaźmierczak to 1954– dissertation entitled On the reactions of Kasner. hydrocarbons. Merkel was educated at Karl Marx University, Leipzig, When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Merkel was where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. working as a research scientist. Soon after, she left At school she learned to speak Russian fluently, and her job to join a new political group that had formed G8 leaders conference was awarded prizes for her proficiency in Russian and in her neighbourhood, thus quietly launching her mathematics. political career. She was the best in her class in mathematics and She rose in German politics and, through sheer Russian and completed her school education with the intelligence and a series of well-timed tactical best possible average Abitur grade 1.0. During the 2020 pandemic Mrs Shailaja has become internationally renowned for her handling of the virus It was reported in the Economic Times of India on threat in Kerala. Amongst other things, she appeared on BBC television, and a very full article about her July 3rd that confirmed cases had risen to 4,465 appeared in The Guardian newspaper on 14th May. 19 Unfortunately the success of the first four months fell away, largely because of the return of migrant workers with 25 deaths. This is a result of migrant workers from other areas and countries and subsequent community transmission. returning to Kerala from other states or from abroad. Medical staff were reporting exhaustion from the continuous workload. It was also of interest that the state had recruited over 1,000 psychiatrists, counsellors and social workers who are tracking the Kerala in south-west India has a population of 35 psychological health of infected persons, elderly ROCKSTAR HEALTH MINISTER people living alone and children. million people, but at the time of writing had only four Picking tea, Kerala deaths from COVID-19. Its people are also a great Despite the recent increase, Kerala, led by Mrs deal poorer than people in the UK. On 19th May our Later, a family flying in from Venice were evasive Shailaja, (now known as the Coronavirus Slayer or Office of National Statistics was quoting almost K.K. about where they had been and were not checked. the Rockstar Health Minister) has given the whole 40,000 deaths from this virus in England and Wales They were soon found to be infected and had world an example of how to combat an epidemic alone. So what has made this huge difference? SHAILAJA potentially passed on the virus to many more. All efficiently, effectively and caringly. Mrs Shailaja herself, in the BBC interview, put it down were contact traced and quarantined. On March Sadly, in late August, despite her best efforts, the to ‘preparedness’. On hearing of a new and dangerous minister of 23rd, all flights into Kerala were stopped and two number of cases of coronavirus in Kerala was rising virus emanating from China she called a meeting of her health & social days later the lockdown of the whole of India began. steadily. rapid response team and instructed the Medical At the height of the epidemic, 170,000 Keralans Politically, Kerala is ruled by the Communist Party of Officers of the 14 districts in Kerala to do the same. welfare were quarantined. Those without an indoor bathroom India, of which Mrs Shailaja is a member. The state Kerala followed the recommendations of the World 1956– were sent to isolation units at state expense. The state has the highest life expectancy and the lowest infant Health Organization to test, trace, isolate and support. also fed its many stranded migrant workers three mortality rate in India. There is a cap on how much They started immediately with passengers arriving on a meals a day. land families can own and land ownership by tenant plane from Wuhan, where it all started. All had their Kerala also had the advantage of hospital beds farmers is encouraged. The state has invested in temperatures checked and three were sent into being made available in plenty of time, and a public health, education, and primary health care. isolation in hospital. All three subsequently tested register of those with respiratory disease which Seemingly, its investment is paying off! positive for coronavirus. The remaining passengers would make them at greater risk. They could also were placed in home quarantine with explanatory turn around their test results in 48 hours. leaflets which had been printed in their native language, Malayalam. Kerala boats Discussing our lockdown project I met with a friend who asked if we had included any women engineers. We During the pandemic we are hearing about the amazing achievements of human beings. Some have survived had not, so she promptly suggested Kerrine Bryan. COVID-19 against all the odds; healthcare staff work long hours in difficult and in often traumatic conditions; scientists across the world are striving to produce vaccines and treatments. In mid-June 2020 I heard about 20 21 Kathy Sullivan, the first person to travel into space and also visit the bottom of the sea. Kathryn Sullivan is an American geologist and former NASA astronaut. She was a crew member on three Space Shuttle missions and, in 1984, was the first American woman to walk in space. Brought up in California, her father was an aerospace engineer. Kathryn’s wish in life has been to understand the world around her as much as possible.

Kerrine’s grandparents came to England from Jamaica Kathryn holds a BSc in Earth Sciences from the in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation, and ‘THE WORLD IS THEIR University of California, Santa Cruz, and a PhD in SHE REACHED FOR THE SKIES they settled in Birmingham. At school, Kerrine began to OYSTER’ Geology from the University of Dalhousie. Whilst doing – AND THE OCEAN DEPTHS shine in mathematics and her maths teacher suggested her PhD she participated in several oceanographic that she become an engineer and for her to apply for KERRINE expeditions to study the floors of the Pacific and KATHRYN the Headstart scheme at Glamorgan University. Kerrine Atlantic oceans. She joined NASA in 1978. In 1988 went on to study engineering and graduated in 2005 BRYAN she joined the US Naval Reserve as an oceanography SULLIVAN from the University of Birmingham with a Masters in officer, retiring with the rank of captain in 2006. Electronic Engineering and German. She then joined a engineer She left NASA in 1993 and had a distinguished civilian geologist large oil and gas contractor. career, with appointments made both by President Kerrine began to give talks to children about her job 1982– George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. In 1951– and she developed the idea of producing books for Inevitably, Kerrine is a strong supporter of STEM, 2014 she became Under-Secretary of Commerce for children which portrayed women working in roles which encourages girls to go into careers in science, Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the She has made a substantial contribution to science traditionally taken by men. She strongly believes that technology, engineering and mathematics. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. teaching and supported girls going into STEM careers. girls from any background can achieve whatever they She has received many awards. In 2017 she was listed This ended in 2017 when Donald Trump became In 2020 explorer Victor Vescovo thought it was time for want to. ‘The world is their oyster’, she says. With her by the Telegraph newspaper in the top 50 Influential President. She has received numerous awards and a woman to descend to the ocean floor and Kathy brother Jason she founded the publishing company Women in Engineering. She regards her greatest honours including an honorary doctorate from Brown Sullivan was invited. In June 2020 they went to the Butterfly Books. Her titles include: My Mummy is an achievement as becoming a Fellow of the Institute of University for her ‘abundant contributions to science, deepest part of the Pacific, the descent and ascent Engineer and My Mummy is a Scientist. Engineering and Technology. education and the public good and her ongoing each taking four to five hours. She is the first woman to Kerrine currently lives in New York with her husband commitment to improving the state of our planet for dive to the deepest part of our oceans and the first and two daughters and is lead engineer for global future generations’. person to travel into space and to Challenger Deep. consultancy WSP. During the coronavirus pandemic, many people are finding time to appreciate more fully the natural world and However, by this time Anne had met her husband to to value the protection of the environment for future generations. be, Kevin. Married, they set off to Zambia, where Anne Press is a ‘hidden gem’ with a vocation to promoting botany and its value to all, benefiting individuals 22 and communities worldwide. After much travel she is now focusing on her local community, transferring her her husband gained a position as a metallurgist in knowledge and skills on how to improve the environment and benefit health and wellbeing. She is a delightful the copper mines while Anne joined a small research and inspirational speaker who captures the minds and hearts of all. team in forest genetics for the Agricultural Research Council of Central Africa. This concerned finding a species of pine tree that would grow well on straight and degraded land, for use on the mines, to prevent further destruction of the indigenous forests. A Anne Holtom was brought up on a farm in South chance visit by her 40 years later showed it to have Devon by parents interested in and knowledgeable ‘MOTHER OF ALL TREES’ been highly successful. about the natural world. This sparked her desire to Unfortunately, their second location in Zaire, the town of Kolwezi, was a target for a rebellion and study science and go to university, but the headmaster ‘Mother of all trees’ local civil war, and after being caught up in this at the local grammar school assured her that farmers’ ANNE Anne and her family were extremely lucky to escape helped with an environmental tree planting project daughters did not do that. But she did, joining the boys’ alive; many friends did not. round a mine and processing plant for the Indian classes, doing all sciences at 'A' level and going on to PRESS With all three children at university, Anne joined government and the Overseas Development Agency. study at Birmingham University for a BSc Hons. in Kevin in Northern India where for three years she She earned the nickname 'mother of all trees'! Botany. botanist On return, she helped locally at the new Botanic Anne enjoyed it tremendously and was able to stay on Centre in Acklam, Middlesbrough in the Northeast of and do research for a PhD in collaboration with the 1943– England, (later named Nature's World), planning British Antarctic Survey on the growth and distribution and planting a forest garden and helping with school of the two flowering plants on the Antarctic continent. educational visits. But once the initial information from herbarium Now Anne concentrates once more on the importance of botany. As a volunteer on various specimens and records and observing growing projects she writes and talks, speaks on radio, has a specimens at the university was completed, she was regular column in magazines and transfers her refused permission to join an expedition as no female knowledge to whoever will listen, advocating the facilities were available! So instead, the data was importance of the almost forgotten subject, botany, written up for an MSc. and a paper which was given at which can provide natural benefits to all. a symposium at the Royal Society of London. She was the only female present. Antarctica flora

Mountains of Antarctica In early 2020, a few of our members took the opportunity to view the DVD Hidden Figures. This event gave rise to the idea for this set of brief biographies. The DVD tells the story of Katherine Johnson, a brilliant THE SECOND OF THREE mathematician who started working for the American National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (ANACA) in BRILLIANT MINDS AT NASA 23 1953. She had to overcome racism and gender discrimination to rise to the top of her profession. This is 24 depicted in the film. Also featured, and equally brilliant, are Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. As they all worked at NASA at the same time, we decided to briefly describe each of these amazing women.

Mary Winston was born in Virginia, USA. She Dorothy Johnson attended Wilberforce University on a In 2019 she was awarded the Congressional Medal attended the University of Hampton and graduated in THE FIRST OF THREE BRILLIANT scholarship and graduated in mathematics in 1929. For posthumously and in the same year Vaughan Crater on maths and physical sciences in 1942. After graduation, MINDS AT NASA 14 years Dorothy worked as a maths teacher in the moon was named after her. Mary taught maths for a year. She also tutored high Virginia. During this time, all schools and other facilities school and college students. MARY were racially segregated. In 1942 Franklin D Roosevelt DOROTHY In 1951 she was recruited by NACA as a research issued orders to end racial discrimination in Federal mathematician at Langley Research Centre, working JACKSON agencies and defence contractors. VAUGHAN under Dorothy Vaughan. NACA became NASA in In 1943 she went to the Langley Research Centre – 1958. She was later offered work as an engineer and engineer part of the National Advisory Committee for mathematician took further training, gaining special permission to Aeronautics – as a mathematician and programmer attend an all-white college. In 1958 she was promoted 1929–2005 specialising in calculations for flight paths. Katherine 1910–2008 to aerospace engineer, NASA’s first black female Johnson was initially assigned to Dorothy’s group engineer. before moving to a different division. In 1949 Dorothy Mary was a Girl Scout Leader and in this capacity became acting supervisor of West Area Computers, the worked with children in her community to build a first African-American to supervise a group of staff at miniature wind tunnel for testing aircraft. the centre. It was some years before she got the In her professional life, she worked to influence the substantive post. She prepared for the introduction of hiring and promotion of women in NASA. machine computers in the early 60s by teaching herself In 2019 she was posthumously awarded the and her staff the programming language Fortran. She Congressional Gold Medal and in 2020 the went into electronic computing in 1961. Washington DC Headquarters of NASA was renamed She contributed to the space program through her work The Mary Jackson NASA HQ in her honour. with the Scout Launch Vehicle Program. THE THIRD OF THREE 25 BRILLIANT MINDS AT NASA

NASA logo, Kennedy Space Center, Florida Katherine was born Creola Katherine Coleman in 1918 in West Virginia. Her mother was a teacher and her She was black, and a woman. Was she the new father a lumberman, farmer, handyman and hotel cleaner? The organisation had no cloakroom worker. She showed strong mathematical talent from an anywhere nearby for a woman or a black person. early age. At that time in her area, public schooling KATHERINE The nearest toilet was a long way off. The attitudes of was not available for African-American students the men there were shocking, but not surprising. beyond the 8th grade. Her parents therefore arranged JOHNSON However, Katherine soon revealed her remarkable for Katherine and her siblings to attend High School in talent and the men grew to respect her. In 1958 ANACA was superceded by the world-famous Institute, West Virginia. At 14, Katherine enrolled in mathematician The historic capsule that carried the first American into orbit West Virginia State, a ‘black’ college. She graduated NASA. She worked there as an aerospace from there with degrees in mathematics and French at 1918–2020 technologist until her retirement 28 years later. She verified the calculations for John Glenn’s orbit of age 18 and took a teaching job, which she left after During that time she moved to the Spacecraft the earth. One can imagine the complexity of these her marriage in 1939 to James Goble, and first Controls Branch. She calculated manually the calculations, taking into account the different pregnancy. James sadly died in 1956 from a brain trajectories of spacecraft and pioneered the use of gravitational pulls of planets. She went on to tumour leaving her with three daughters. She later computers for complex calculations. This included the contribute to the success of many more missions by married Jim Johnson. This marriage lasted for 60 years space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in virtue of her remarkable mathematical ability. until his death at the age of 93. Katherine herself died space, in 1961 and his Mercury mission. She plotted In 1997 Katherine was appointed Mathematician of in 2020 aged 101. back-up charts for astronauts in case of electronics the Year. In 2015, she was presented with The At ANACA, initially she worked in a pool of women failures. Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. carrying out mathematical calculations. Then she was assigned to the all-male, all-white research team. Her colleagues looked at her in suspicion. It is not often that I read obituaries, but one in the i newspaper caught my eye – a woman astrophysicist. When, in 1945, she applied for a fellowship which She had just died, aged 100. That takes some doing – to work in such an exciting field of science in that would involve observing at Mount Wilson generation. According to the obituary, her work shed light on distant galaxies, mysterious quasars and the 26 origins of chemical elements. As a former chemist myself, my mind engaged with this immediately. She was a Observatory in the USA she was rejected because she truly inspirational woman, working in a very difficult field. was a woman. During the pandemic, there has been much less traffic on the road and some industries have shut down. Air pollution is much less and it has become possible to see the stars at night more clearly. The observatory was only for men! To get to use their telescope she posed as an assistant to her physicist husband, whom she married in 1948. In 1951, she took her first job in the USA. She Eleanor Margaret Peachey was born in 1919 in returned to the UK in 1953 to work with William Stockport, UK. She first became interested in the stars, ‘A LITTLE BIT OF STARDUST’ Alfred Fowler and Fred Hoyle at Cambridge skies and planets at the early age of four, whilst on a University on the generation of chemical elements in ferry across the English Channel. She went on to read the stars – stellar nucleosynthesis. books by astronomer James Jeans. She attended MARGARET Fowler was later awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in University College, London, where she was awarded a Physics, with his colleague Subrahmanyan degree in 1939 and a PhD in 1943. During the war she BURBIDGE Chandrasekhar. He expressed surprise that was a caretaker at the University of London Margaret Burbidge was not included. Observatory. The blackout made it easier to see the astrophysicist The Burbidges returned to California with Fowler. Her skies. At UCL she met her husband, Geoffrey Burbidge. re-application for a fellowship at Mount Wilson They worked together in astronomical research. They 1919–2020 Observatory was again turned down because she was female, so she and her husband swapped roles had one daughter. Margaret devoted her whole career Royal Observatory Greenwich to astronomy and astrophysics. She, with colleagues, so that again she could gain access to the telescope showed how chemical elements are formed inside as his assistant. During the 1960s and 70s she including becoming President of the American stars. They confirmed that we are all ‘a little bit of continued her work on galaxies and quasars. She Astronomical Society in 1976 and The Albert Einstein stardust’. became the first female director of the Royal World Award of Science in 1988. She became a US After the war, she taught astronomy at the University of Observatory Greenwich in 1972. citizen in 1977. London Observatory. One of her undergraduates was She had become a Fellow of the Royal Society in Her husband, Geoff, died in 2010, and she in 2020. Arthur C. Clarke. 1964 and had several other honours and awards A life well lived.

Tarantula nebula Scientific advice and projections are crucial in dealing with a pandemic of a new virus. Professor Dame Angela A global pandemic requires a sharing of information between nations and worldwide action. In this, the World McLean, as the Government’s Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor, has made several appearances in that capacity at Health Organization takes a lead role. The World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations, was the daily press conferences which have been held for much of the pandemic in the UK. She has had an founded in 1948. As well as providing guidance on managing the pandemic, it has also kept track of its spread 27 illustrious scientific career. 28 from country to country. It employs 7,000 people in 150 countries. Amongst its values are independence, fairness, transparency and professionalism. A key principle of the WHO, as stated in the introduction to its constitution is: ‘The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.’ It is playing a vital role in understanding and controlling the pandemic.

McLean was born in Jamaica in 1961. She was initially Dr Soumya Swaminathan has held the pivotal role of educated in London and later at Somerville College, A CRUCIAL ADVISOR IN THE Chief Scientist at WHO since 2019. She was born in CHIEF SCIENTIST, WORLD Oxford, where she gained a BA in Mathematics. This 2020 PANDEMIC Chennai, India and is a qualified doctor, specialising HEALTH ORGANIZATION was followed up with a PhD in Biomathematics from initially in paediatrics, including paediatric respiratory Imperial College London. ANGELA disease. She holds an MBBS from the Armed Forces SOUMYA After previously working at the University of Oxford Medical College and MD from the All India Institute of and the Pasteur Institute in Paris, she is now Professor of MCLEAN Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Dr Swaminathan has SWAMINATHAN Mathematical Biology at Oxford University. She is also worked in the field of tropical diseases, public especially interested in the use of mathematical models mathematical health and research. She has worked extensively on clinical to understand how infections evolve and spread – biologist TB. She is part of the TB Zero City Project to create clearly of critical importance with an emerging ‘Islands of Elimination’ of the disease. She is thus scientist pandemic. This scientific knowledge and theory then 1961– admirably qualified to advise on action to control the 1959– informs public policy. spread of coronavirus. In 2005, McLean became Director of the Institute for Regarding the coronavirus epidemic in India, Dr Emerging Infections in Humans, and in 2008, Senior Swaminathan has stated that the goal is not eradication Research Fellow in Theoretical Life Sciences. In 2009 She is also Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor to the of the virus (only smallpox has been eradicated), but She estimated that to provide two billion doses this she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and in Government. In this role, she has advocated an management. It could take four to five years before year would require $18.1 billion. We await with 2011 was awarded its Gabor Medal, an annual effective track, trace and isolate system for COVID-19 COVID-19 is under control. expectation and hope the results of the vaccine trials. award for distinction of interdisciplinary work between as an essential means of controlling the spread of She was quoted in the Oxford student newspaper in the life sciences and other disciplines. She became the infection. late June 2020 as believing that the vaccine, Chief Scientific Advisor at the UK Ministry of Defence AZD1222, being developed in Oxford is probably the in 2019, the first woman in this role. leading candidate for a successful vaccine. The lockdown across the world in 2020 has brought about many problems but at least one major benefit: air In mid-1945 Rachel first came across the pesticide populations was attributable to the use of DDT. pollution has fallen. With fewer vehicles on the road and fewer aircraft in the skies our air has become cleaner. DDT, which later became one of her chief concerns. She also found evidence that DDT was linked to the The Himalayas can be seen from a greater distance; the stars in the sky shine more brightly. Sadly, the 29 discarding of facemasks and plastic items of PPE are creating further problems. development of some human cancers. Naturally, her In the years leading up to the pandemic, our environment became a major issue. People began to realise the findings were opposed by chemical manufacturers of effects of human activity on our planet. Climate change became a major concern for many. Sir David Attenborough was a major spokesperson and Greta Thunberg was widely admired for her outspokenness on these products, but she won the argument and environmental issues at a comparatively young age. Rachel Carson was one of the major forerunners of the eventually a nationwide ban on the use of DDT was environmental movement. introduced. Her research also led to the creation of For Soroptimists across the world, with their links to the United Nations, damage to our planet, with all the repercussions for the future, is a major theme of action. the US Environmental Protection Agency. Rachel Carson grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, Her seminal book Silent Spring was published in USA. She took a great interest in the natural world. She SILENT SPRING 1962. The 1994 edition carried an introduction by was also a keen writer, writing her first book at the age Vice-President Al Gore. In 2012 the book was of eight. In 1925 she finished High School top of her Spraying with DDT, 1955 recognised as a National Historic Chemical class of 44. At university she switched courses from RACHEL Landmark by the American Chemical Society. Rachel English to biology and then on to zoology and genetics She became chief editor of publications at the US gained many other awards and accolades, some at John Hopkins University. CARSON Fish & Wildlife Service – formerly the US Bureau of posthumously. She was forced to leave academia to earn a living in Fisheries. This involved administrative duties, which She worked throughout her final illness. She had 1934 to help support her family during the Great marine biologist she disliked, so she decided to become a full-time metastatic breast cancer. Weakened by this illness, Depression. The situation was exacerbated a year later & conservationist writer. The Sea Around Us was published in 1951 she died in 1964 from a respiratory virus. with the sudden death of her father, making her the and won the 1952 National Book Award for non- Her life and work have been an inspiration to many. main carer for her mother. She began work at the US 1907–1964 fiction and the John Burroughs Medal. She was Bureau of Fisheries writing copy for a weekly radio awarded two honorary doctorates. The book was series on aquatic life. Following her success in this role, later turned into a film. she gained a full-time job as an aquatic biologist. This In the mid 50s Rachel increasingly turned her entailed analysis and reporting of data on fish attention to the environment. She was especially populations and writing for the general public. A interested in proposals for widespread spraying of publication in 1937 depicting a journey along the crops to kill pests using DDT and other pesticides. ocean floor was turned into a book – Under the Sea She gathered evidence of the harmful effects of such Wind (1941). chemicals, proposing that a decline in bird Marine turtle When we decided on this lockdown project, my mind reflected on the scientists who were well known when I Dorothy took her husband’s name, Hodgkin, after 12 was studying. One such was Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in years of marriage. He was a lecturer in Oxford and 1964 for determining the chemical structure of Vitamin B12 using X-ray crystallography. She was the third 30 woman, and the only British woman, to win this prize. It has been a pleasure to research her amazing life. an intermittent member of the Communist Party. Dorothy worked over the years with scientists from Russia, India and China. Because of her husband’s connections with the Communist Party, she was unable to visit the USA. She did, however, go to Ghana where her husband had become an advisor Dorothy Crowfoot was born in 1910 in Cairo and died to Kwame Nkrumah. Dorothy herself had a keen aged 84 in England. She married Thomas Hodgkin in CHEMIST AND ACTIVIST interest in nuclear disarmament and was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Government in 1937 and they had three children. She suffered from Mosaic from Saint Stephen Church located in Umm Rasas, rheumatoid arthritis for much of her adult life, which Jordan recognition of her contribution to peace and makes her achievements all the more admirable. disarmament. DOROTHY Dorothy went up to Oxford in 1928 where she took Her interest in sciences was stimulated by her parents. Dorothy’s achievements are recognised in the several a 1st class degree in Chemistry, then to Cambridge For example, on her 16th birthday, her mother gave HODGKIN portraits of her, blue plaques marking where she for a PhD. This was awarded in 1937 for her work on her a book on X-ray crystallography! Her parents lived or worked, buildings or fellowships named sterols. By then, she had moved back to Oxford as a divided their time between Egypt (and later Sudan) after her and many honours and awards, including chemist & tutor in chemistry with a research fellowship. She and England. Dorothy and her younger sisters were the Order of Merit. She has also featured twice on crystallographer later became a Reader and then the Royal Society’s cared for in their parents’ absence by their paternal commemorative postage stamps and was featured in Wolfson Research Professor. One of her students in grandparents. Dorothy started grammar school in a radio series in 2012 which marked British people 1910–1994 the 1940s was Margaret Thatcher, who later put up 1921. At 13, she made an extensive visit to her parents, whose work has made a significant impact on British a portrait of Dorothy in 10 Downing Street. Dorothy who were then in Khartoum, where her father was a lives during the reign of Elizabeth II. became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947. college principal. In 1926 her father took a post as A truly remarkable woman! Her research in Oxford resulted in her, with Director of the British School of Archaeology in colleagues, elucidating the chemical structure of Jerusalem, remaining until 1935. Dorothy visited them penicillin, cholesterol and insulin. in Jerash, now in Jordan, where she documented the This was no mean task! Resolving the structure of patterns of mosaics from 5th and 6th century churches. insulin took her 35 years! These mirror the patterns in the chemical structure of organic molecules. Lenin Peace Prize medal Marie Curie was one of my childhood heroines and stimulated my interest in the physical sciences. Imagine Back in Paris, she enrolled at the university to study with major implications for modern medicine. being able to see through human flesh to the bones inside! Marie gave her name to the element curium, to physics, chemistry and maths, eventually graduating Marie justifiably received many honours, awards and the international standard for radioactive emissions, the curie, and to the renowned Marie Curie charity which 31 provides nursing services to the terminally ill. Her discovery of radioactivity was a major scientific breakthrough, with two degrees. In Paris she met her husband accolades. She was the first woman to receive a and her establishment of radiological services near the front line in WW1 will have helped save many soldiers’ Pierre, whom she married in 1895. Nobel Prize; the only woman to receive the Nobel lives. Her accomplishments are so numerous, it is only possible to provide a summary. Hopefully this will whet the appetite of readers to find out more about this amazing woman. In 1895 Roentgen had discovered X-rays. A year later, Prize twice, and the only woman to win Nobel prizes Her pioneering work in radiology has enabled modern radiology to play its vital part in diagnosis in the 2020 Becquerel discovered rays emitted by uranium salts. in different fields, physics and chemistry. She was the pandemic and Marie Curie nurses continue to serve the dying and their families. Marie decided to research these rays from uranium. In first woman to become a Professor at the University of a makeshift laboratory, she and her husband worked Paris and the first woman to be entombed (with her Marie Curie, born Maria, to the Sklodowska family in continuously with radioactive substances with none of husband) in the Pantheon in Paris. She was invited to Warsaw in 1867, their fifth child. Both her parents were THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL the Personal Protective Equipment that would be the present a paper at the Royal Institution in London in teachers. Poland was then under Russian rule. The WOMAN IN SCIENCE? norm today. Ultimately, it was radiation exposure that 1903, but, being a woman, her husband had to family lost their property and fortunes through led to her death from anaplastic anaemia in 1934 at the present it on her behalf. As well as having to deal involvement in political uprisings. Marie’s father taught MARIE age of 66. The academic papers which she produced with discrimination against women, Marie, being of maths and physics, but laboratory work was banned are radioactive and are kept in lead-lined boxes. Polish origin, also suffered xenophobia, people by the Russians, so he brought equipment home and CURIE Through her sustained work, Marie isolated uranium suspecting her of being Jewish. taught his children there. He eventually lost his teaching and discovered the element thorium. Marie was quick During World War 1, she set up radiological stations job. His wife ran a boarding school for girls but gave it physicist & chemist to publish her work as she correctly realised that most near the front lines: mobile X-ray units. These must have up after Marie was born. The family began to take in people in the scientific establishment of the day would been invaluable in diagnosing injuries. She also boarders to supplement their income. Marie’s oldest 1867–1934 not believe that such work could be done by a woman. produced hollow needles containing a radioactive gas, sister died of typhus contracted from one of the Marie suspected a further new element in the uranium radon, given off by radium and used to sterilise infected boarders. Three years later her mother died of TB. In ore pitchblende, with which she was working. She tissue. It is thought that over a million wounded soldiers those days infectious diseases were a major cause of and Pierre eventually processed tonnes of this ore to benefitted from her X-ray units. death. discover polonium, named after her country of origin. In a 2009 poll carried out by New Scientist, she was Marie’s early education was in Warsaw. She could not The next discovery was of radium. From a tonne of voted ‘The most inspirational woman in science’. go into conventional higher education there as she was pitchblende she isolated a meagre 0.1 gram of Rosalind Franklin came second. Marie was a friend of female, so she went to the clandestine Flying University. radium chloride. In 1910 she isolated pure radium. It Hertha Ayrton. The scientific research and discoveries Later, and after a tragic love affair, she joined her sister was announced in a scientific paper that radium could of Marie Curie have saved many lives and continue Bronislawa in Paris, where she was studying medicine destroy cancerous cells. This was another discovery to do so to this day. and had also married. Marie soon returned to Warsaw, where she began her scientific training. OUR I have always been curious to learn about women who have contributed to the field of science and technology. Here is a little about our contributors... Recently, I saw a tweet about a Muslim scientist, Dr Sameera Moussa, aka Mother of Atomic Energy, on CONTRIBUTORS International Women’s Day and got interested to learn more about her. Geraldine Nuttall After reading about her, I have learned that she was a very kind-hearted and peace-loving woman as is evident 32 Originally from Lancashire, Geraldine did her nurse by her saying, ‘I’ll make nuclear treatment as available and as cheap as Aspirin’. Furthermore, Dr Moussa spent her life volunteering at many hospitals to help treat cancer patients – a woman with great commitment training in Portsmouth and is now a Nurse Practitioner in a Kath Sainsbury and devotion. dedicated practice in Middlesbrough, which cares for the After spending over 20 years working in schools for refugee community. children with Special Educational Needs, she changed careers in 2000 and began a job welcoming asylum Margaret Clark seekers with Justice First, a local charity which helps Dr Sameera Moussa, born in Egypt on the 3rd March OTHER OF ATOMIC Having a career that has taken her locally, nationally and 1917, was the first female Egyptian nuclear physicist M refugees. internationally, Margaret sees the global need for a more who, after losing her mother to cancer, dedicated her ENERGY? equitable and equal society, for peace making and for Alwyn Kraus research to finding ways to make nuclear technology women in the decision-making process. Alwyn has been a Soroptimist for 50 years and President of as cheap as possible for cancer treatment. SAMEERA SI Middlesbrough four times. As Senior Careers Advisor in She was the first woman to earn a PhD in atomic Pam Cooper Middlesbrough, she encouraged many young girls to fulfil radiation in England, the first woman to gain an MOUSSA Pam has qualifications and a keen interest in the natural assistant professor position at Cairo University and, their potential and raise their aspirations. In voluntary sciences and in public health. She started from very globally, she was one of the first advocates for nuclear nuclear roles, for 22 years, she is a strong voice for disadvantaged ordinary beginnings and would like to see girls be the best hazard protection. people and has been able to influence social policy. physicist they can be. While in England, her noteworthy contribution to physics was her development of an equation that 1917–1952 Uzma Hussain Kazmi Pauline Reed would allow the atoms of cheap metals such as copper Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, Uzma moved to Pauline studied at Manchester University for a degree in to be split in order to access their nuclear energy. Conference; it was the first time that the topic of atomic Britain in 2006 for further study. She completed a Masters Economics and Social Studies. She subsequently qualified She believed in ‘Atoms for Peace’ and hence, in the energy was publicly mentioned. in IT at Teesside University and, in 2009, set up a small IT as a social worker, after further funded study at what is events of bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the While in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, she Consultancy in Middlesbrough. now Leeds Metropolitan University. Second World War, Sameera was determined to show became the first non-citizen to visit US atomic facilities. We are very grateful for the free services of Christopher the world that nuclear technology should not always She passed away in California on 5 August 1952 in a Marianne Hill Woods, our independent editor. be dangerous and could be used to save people’s car accident. Due to her untimely death and the fact Now retired, still using the skills from life, Marianne lives. that a majority of her work was written in Arabic, her volunteers with Middlesbrough Samaritans and also Sameera promoted the peaceful use of nuclear work was not officially published. delivers training to inmates in our local high-security technology and organised the Atomic Energy for Peace prison. She says it is rewarding albeit challenging too. Middlesbrough