Irene Manton
| Irene Manton | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
17 April 1904 Kensington, London |
| Died | 13 May 1988 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Botany, Genetics, Electron microscopy |
| Institutions | Girton College, Cambridge |
| Education | St Paul's Girls' School |
| Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge (PhD, 1930) |
| Notable awards |
Linnean Medal (1969) Schleiden Medal (1972) |
Irene Manton, FRS (born Irène Manton; 17 April 1904, Kensington – died 13 May 1988) was a British botanist. She was noted for study of ferns and algae.
Irene Manton was the daughter of dental surgeon, George Manton and embroidress and designer, and descendant of French aristocracy, Milana Manton (nee D'Humy). Her first name was originally pronounced and spelled in the French manner; but at 18 she dropped this and opted for "Irene". Her sister was the entomologist Sidnie Manton FRS. She was educated at the Froebel Demonstration School and St. Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith.
In 1923 she attended Girton College, Cambridge. She found Cambridge unsatisfying, in part because the university as a whole was not yet welcoming of women, and later went on to study with Gustaf Otto Rosenberg in . Manton obtained a lecturing position at the University of Manchester in December of 1928. In June 1930 she received her PhD, with her thesis being on Cruciferae. She had to apply for special permission to continue her PhD studies away from Cambridge when she obtained the position at Manchester.
Much of her academic career was spent at the University of Leeds where she was Professor of Botany from 1946 until 1969 and Professor Emeritus thereafter and where her focus was on ferns and algae. The work with ferns, which addressed hybridization, polyploidy, and apomixis, included her 1950 book, Problems of cytology and evolution in the pteridophyta. Her work on the algae was notable for its use of the electron microscope with her cytological work known worldwide for the structure of cilia and flagella she revealed. She was author or co-author of over 140 scientific publications.
...
Wikipedia