Jane Gibson
| Jane Gibson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Audrey Jane Pinsent October 5, 1924 Paris, France |
| Died | June 10, 2008 (aged 83) Etna, New Hampshire, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Microbiologist |
| Years active | 1946–2008 |
Audrey Jane Gibson (nee Pinsent; October 5, 1924 – June 10, 2008) was a British-American microbiologist and biochemist who worked in the field of photosynthetic bacteria. She discovered that selenium is required by the metabolism of coliform bacteria and described a new species of sulphur bacterium in the genus Chloroherpeton. She became Professor at Cornell University in 1979 and was editor of the scientific journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Born Audrey Jane Pinsent on 5 October 1924 in Paris, her father was Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent (1888–1976), later to become comptroller-general of the UK National Debt Office. Her mother was Katharine Kentisbeare (1884–1949), daughter of the Liberal MP, Sir George Radford.
Her early years were spent in both Switzerland and in Devon. She was educated at The Maynard School in Exeter and, in 1946, obtained a first-class honours degree in biochemistry at Newnham College, Cambridge under the supervision of biochemist, Marjory Stephenson. In 1949 she obtained a PhD in microbiology at the Lister Institute of the University of London.
Whilst based at the Lister Institute in 1954, Gibson published her discovery that the trace elements selenium (which was previously believed only to be toxic) and molybdenum are essential requirements for bacterial growth, specifically the production of formate dehydrogenase in coliform bacteria (e.g. Escherichia coli).
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