MARIE CURIE During the Period of This Pandemic and Deserve to Be 19 31 and Succeeding in Any Field They Choose
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
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.