Margaret Blackwood

Dame Margaret Blackwood DBE (26 April 1909 – 1 June 1986) was an Australian botanist and geneticist. She attended the University of Melbourne and lectured there for the majority of her career, becoming deputy chancellor after her academic retirement. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981 and was inducted posthumously into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Margaret Blackwood was born in 1909 in South Yarra, a suburb of Melbourne. Her parents were Robert Leslie Blackwood and Muriel Pearl (née Henry), both teachers, and her older brother was the engineer Robert Blackwood. She attended Melbourne Girls Grammar School and, after qualifying as a teacher, taught at Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School and Korowa Anglican Girls' School. She enrolled at the University of Melbourne in 1934 and studied part-time, continuing to teach to support herself. She completed a Bachelor of Science in 1938 and a Master of Science in botany in 1939. Her postgraduate research focused on dieback in the pine species Pinus radiata. From 1939 until 1941, she was a research scholar and demonstrator at the university in the field of plant cytology and genetics.

During the Second World War, Blackwood enrolled in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in 1941. She first worked as a drill instructor before working on the creation of a cipher for the Royal Australian Air Force. She was promoted to the rank of Wing Officer in January 1945 and was discharged in January 1946.