Happy birthday to Kathleen Lonsdale DBE FRS (née Yardley, 1903-1971) who solved a longstanding #chemistry conundrum of the shape of benzene, here with her drawing of electron density for hexachlorobenzene (green) & model of hexamethylbenzene explore shape in different forms. Her husband said, “Before prison it might have bothered her to go to Buckingham Palace. Afterwards, Holloway or Buckingham Palace were all the same.” 🧵
https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1399683976
She was a #physicist, #crystallographer, #pacifist & prison reformer. She was the 1st to employ Fourier spectral methods & used them to solve the structure of hexachlorobenzene in ‘31. In ‘45 she was one of the 1st 2 women elected Fellow of the Royal Society & was the 1st woman: tenured professor at UC London, president of the International Union of Crystallography & president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Born in poverty in Ireland, her mother left her father & 🧵2
