23rd February 1892 – 20 August 1968
Cell biology expert who made the discovery that a minority of plant cells have sex chromosomes in the same way as mammals.
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Kathleen Bever Blackburn
Eras:
Location:
Armstrong Building (Formerly Armstrong College, part of Durham University). Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Kathleen Bever Blackburn won an international reputation in the science world with her breakthrough discoveries of sex chromosomes in some plant cells. She was one of the first scientists to analyse pollen.
The Newcastle university botany lecturer identified male and female chromosomes of white campion under the microscope in the 1920s. She also examined the chromosomes of British roses and took her discoveries to a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Toronto, Canada, in 1924.
Her work led to the award of a Doctor of Science from London University in 1924. She was given the Trail Award and gold medal from the Linnean Society of London in 1930, "for outstanding contributions to biological microscopy".
She taught botany at Armstrong College, Durham University (later renamed King’s College and now part of Newcastle University) from 1918 to 1957, where she collaborated with Professor John William Heslop Harrison, her head of department. She became Reader in Cytology and Supervisor of Research.
Her competence with pollen analysis through the 1930s, especially of grains found in peat, prompted research that furthered the knowledge of repopulation of landscapes following glaciations.
In the 1940s, she became involved in researching soils and peat bogs in connection with the development of Kielder Forest in Northumberland. Archaeologists, working on Hadrian's Wall, used her skills at reconstructing past vegetation to help their research.
She was president of the Northern Naturalists’ Union, a council member of the Natural History Society of Northumbria and also served on the management committee of the now Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle.
Kathleen was the daughter of Methodist church minister E.P Blackburn, a prominent naturalist himself. The family settled in Newcastle after he came to Jesmond to continue his ministry. Unusually for a woman of her time, she rode a motorcycle and later drove her own car.
Entry written by Maggie Davison.
Kathleen Beyer Blackburn photographed attending a scientific meeting in the United States. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian.
