Ten Newnham science pioneers
Some of the amazing, less well-known, scientific discoveries of Newnham alumnae.
Medicine: Dr Helen Chambers CBE (NC 1897)
Radiotherapy treatment for cervical cancer owes much to Helen Chambers (1879–1935). A trained pathologist, Helen became increasingly interested in the effects of radiation on malignant cells. She noted how radiation, precisely targeted at malignant tumours in animals, could prevent their regrowth. At the time, cervical cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths in British women, and was treated by hysterectomy, though mortality rates were appallingly high. Helen proposed trialling radium therapy as an alternative approach, and that this treatment be led by women doctors and researchers. This resulted in the women-led Marie Curie Hospital, a specialist cancer treatment centre in London, with vastly higher success rates than at conventional hospitals. Helen saw medical research as key to improving healthcare, visiting leading researchers in Paris with a view to trialling their approaches in Britain. Sadly, she herself died of breast cancer, carrying out her research until shortly before her death.
Biochemistry: Dr Lucy Wills (NC 1907)
Folate was the only vitamin to have been discovered by a woman; its importance and its effectiveness in curing anaemia was discovered by Lucy Wills (1888–1964), who after studying Natural Sciences at Newnham trained as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine. She discovered the existence of a crucial substance in yeast extract in 1931, when she fed Marmite to anaemic pregnant women in Bombay, which cured them. Her research provided the first evidence for a previously unknown vitamin called the ‘Wills factor’ until it received the name folic acid ten years later. In The Folate Story, Victor Hoffbrand writes: ‘The story of folate (vitamin B9) is one of outstanding achievements which have advanced major areas of medical practice … This book is dedicated to the heroine of the folate story, Lucy Wills … An outstanding clinical scientist, independent and radical in outlook, she never received the national or international recognition and honours she surely deserved.’
Geophysics: Dr Inge Lehmann (NC 1910)
In the 1930s, Inge Lehmann (1888–1993) made a groundbreaking discovery about the nature of the Earth. A mathematician and seismologist, Inge was responsible for the Danish network of seismic stations, tracking earthquakes and analysing how the energy they release travels through the Earth. At the time, the leading theory was that the Earth had an entirely molten core. Inge, however, could see that her own instruments recorded seismic waves from an earthquake on the other side of the world, in New Zealand, something impossible according to the contemporary models. Over the next few years, she analysed more and more data sets, until she proposed a new theory: a solid inner core inside the Earth’s liquid outer core. As so often, it took many years for her to gain formal recognition of her achievements: Inge was eventually awarded a slew of scientific medals, but not until ten years after retirement.
Ecology: Maud Haviland (NC 1915 & Fellow)
There are many areas in which Maud Haviland (1889–1941) was a pioneer. Even before she came up to Newnham as a research student in 1915, she had joined a scientific expedition to Siberia and published her findings, and worked as an ambulance driver on the front lines of France in the First World War, for which she earned two medals of bravery. As a Fellow, then Associate of Newnham (1919–36) she continued a hugely productive academic career alongside motherhood, and published five books and 47 journal papers in an era when it was extremely rare for women to continue their scientific careers after marriage. She was one of the very few women to teach a formal Tripos course and publish a standard textbook (on the ecology of forest, steppe and tundra). She was part of a new wave of scientists in the early twentieth century who transformed the study of natural history into the science of ecology, and her monograph on the tropical Membracidae (treehoppers) remains influential a century later. She was the first person to document the phenomenon of maternal care in treehoppers. With thanks to Professor Kelley Tilmon.
Early computing: Margaret Masterman (NC 1929)
Philosopher and linguist Margaret Masterman (1910–1986) has been described as ‘the woman who founded Artificial Intelligence’. A student of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Margaret was fascinated by the fundamentals of how human languages work, and how this could be related to the rapidly emerging capabilities of computers. Margaret founded the Cambridge Language Research Unit in 1953, pioneered computational linguistics and was at the forefront of the earliest attempts to develop machine translation. Her background in Philosophy and languages allowed her to think subtly about how communication functions, arguing against predominant academic theories around language. Endlessly ambitious in her goals, she was frustrated by attempts to reshape human language to fit computers, rather than training computers to understand all the subtleties of human speech.
Physics: Joan (Lady) Curran (Strothers, NC 1934)
Physicist Joan Curran (1916–1999) was honoured for her extraordinary contribution during the Second World War as one of ten women immortalised in 2024 as 8ft-tall steel silhouettes at the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincolnshire. As a young graduate, Joan joined the Air Ministry as a Junior Science Officer, and during the war, based in the Physics department at the University of Exeter, she and her husband Samuel Curran developed the proximity fuse. This device detonates a bomb automatically when it is in close range of its target, and which became vital in the fight against V2 bombs. Together they were transferred to the Telecommunications Research Establishment near Swanage, where Joan was assigned to the radar countermeasures group. She specialised in military red herrings, inventing a technique codenamed ‘Window’ or ‘Chaff ’, which consisted of using strips of metal to confuse enemy radar searches. On D-Day, thousands of metal strips were dropped by Lancasters of 617 Squadron to synthesise a phantom invasion force of ships in the Straits of Dover and keep the Germans unsure where the Allies would land. ‘Chaff ’ is still in use today by the world’s armed forces.
Neuroscience: Dr Brenda Milner (Langford, NC 1936 & Honorary Fellow)
Working with patients who had suffered brain lesions from accidents or surgery, Brenda Milner made a breakthrough in scientific understanding of which regions of the brain are specialised for memory formation and other cognitive functions. She showed that one patient (‘HM’) was able to acquire new skills, despite suffering severe amnesia after damage to the hippocampus and surrounding regions. This proved that memory resides in multiple parts and systems within the brain. This Kavli Prize-winning discovery is just one of many contributions to science over a long career as Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University and Professor of Psychology at the Montreal Neurological Institute. On the occasion of Brenda’s 100th birthday, her colleagues Kate E. Watkins and Denise Klein wrote: ‘Brenda did not set out to be a role model for women, but it is difficult to ignore the magnitude of her achievements set against the backdrop of the dominance of men in the field during the early years of her career. … even if it were unintended, at least a part of Brenda’s legacy is to have been a pioneer and role model for women and girls.’
Plant Science: Professor Ottoline Leyser (NC 1983, Junior Research Fellow 1993-94)
Plant scientist Dame Ottoline Leyser addressed the fundamental mechanism of a well-known biological phenomenon. In other words, she and her team found out exactly how ‘pinching out’ young plants makes them grow bushy new side shoots. (If you haven’t tried this on tomato seedlings, do.) Scientists knew that the plant hormone auxin was effectively preventing side shoots from growing, but how this happened was unclear. In 2005, Ottoline and her team at the University of York identified the specialised hormone receptor within the plant’s cells, a receptor that auxin fitted into like a key in a lock, shutting down branching. Their research was key to understanding biological processes but also has clear implications for increasing the yields of crops and biofuels.
Biotechnology: Dr Hayat Sindi (NC 1995 & Honorary Fellow)
For nearly 20 years, Hayat Sindi has been turning scientific advances into medical devices, focusing on detecting disease. She holds nine patents for a machine that combines the effects of light and ultrasound for use in early detection of breast cancer, for example. But her particular focus is on developing low cost, easy-to-use devices for use in countries with poor medical infrastructure. This began in 2008, as a visiting scholar in a Harvard research lab, when Hayat saw the potential in the new form of diagnostic test the lab developed – a little like the Covid tests we all became so familiar with, but made out of paper rather than plastic, and needed only tiny samples of liquid to work with. Hayat co-founded a non-profit organisation to bring the technology to developing countries. Since then, she’s encouraged other young women from the Middle East to become scientists and innovators.
Agricultural Science: Dr Carol Ibe (NC 2015)
To have its full impact, cutting-edge scientific research needs to be brought out of the lab and into the world. Since her early days as a PhD student in Plant Sciences, Carol Ibe has been committed to making that happen. Advanced applied molecular bioscience techniques would enable African scientists and farmers to feed the continent and grow its economy, but Carol realised how much capacity-building needed to happen to achieve that. So, in 2015, Carol set up the JR Biotek Foundation, which has delivered high-level scientific training to over 270 scientists in person (and thousands online) across 19+ African countries – people who, thanks to Carol’s work, are already bringing together bio-innovations and environmental sustainability. Her journey bridges world-class discovery science with grassroots impact, ensuring that insights from the lab, like her breakthrough on wheat disease resistance, are translated into real tools, training, and innovations that strengthen Africa’s capacity to tackle food insecurity and climate change.
This feature first appeared in the Roll Letter 2024-25, published January 2026. Photo shows field of wheat by Žarko Šušnjar, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0