Lunch will be provided. RSVP to Sheilagh Holmes.

The first generation of British women to make careers as professional scientists came of age in the decades 1890-1910. This was also the period when Biochemistry was being defined and established as a discipline. So the earliest British women biochemists were pioneers twice over! Among them, Ida Smedley MacLean (ISM) stands out for her wide-ranging activity outside the laboratory. She campaigned relentlessly for women’s full and public participation in learned societies and other structures supporting the discipline and -- in parallel -- she promoted the establishment of exclusive women’s networks and campaigning organizations, notably the British Federation of University Women which she led for many years. Unusually for her generation of women scientists, she also married and had children. And from 1910-1940 she made many important contributions to understanding of the chemistry and biochemistry of lipids (fats).

She is a notable figure and her name is known to specialists in the ‘history of women in science’ field, but not more widely. In the past year, I tracked down her grand-daughter and now have available on loan a large quantity of ISM’s personal papers – diaries, scrapbooks and correspondence. The challenge I face is how to exploit these and archive sources to generate a rounded account of ISM’s life, work and public impact that might make her name better known.