| Authorised form of name | Tait; Sylvia Agnes Sophia (1917 - 2003); biochemist and endocrinologist |
| Other forms of surname | Simpson |
| Dates | 1917 - 2003 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Tumen, Siberia, Russia, North Asia |
| Date of birth | 08 January 1917 |
| Place of death | Lymington Hospital, Lymington, Hampshire, England |
| Date of death | 28 February 2003 |
| Occupation | Biochemist and endocrinologist |
| Research field | Biochemistry |
| Endocrinology |
| Activity | Education:
Family returned to England in 1920; Ealing School; King's College, London; University College London, began studying German, switched to Zoology (1939); postgraduate research at Oxford University
Career:
Research Assistant, Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, Middlesex Hospital Medical School (1944-1955) with James Tait and Tadeus Reichstein; Senior scientist, Worcester Foundation of experimental Biology, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts (1958-1970); Research Associate and Co-Director, Bio-physical endocrine unit, Department of Physics as Applied to Medicine, Middlesex Hospital Medical School (1970-1982); retired and moved to East Boldre in the New Forest, continuing scientfific investiation (1982); died of renal and heart failure.
Memberships:
British Society for Endocrinology
American Endocrine Society
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Awards/Medals:
Tadeus Reichstein Award of International Society for Endocrinology
Gregory Pincus Memorial Award
Ciba award of the American Heart Association for Hypertensive Research |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 19/03/1959 |
| Age at election | 42 |
| Proposer | Geoffrey Wingfield Harris |
| Alan Sterling Parkes |
| Sydney John Folley |
| Frank Dickens |
| Guy Frederic Marrian |
| Frank George Young |
| Edward Charles Dodds |
| Relationships | Parents: James William Wardropper (1877–1952), Scottish agronomist, and his Ludmila, née Zacharov (1880–1972), a Russian who had graduated in mathematics from the University of Moscow.
Spouse: 1) (m 6 April 1940) Flight Lieutenant Anthony Simpson (killed in action near Bergen, Norway 1941); 2) (m 1956) James Francis Tait (FRS 1959). |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R77045
RCN R77299
RCN R77033
RCN R77298
RCN R77325
RCN R77032
RCN R76999
RCN R77300
RCN R77292
RCN R77103
RCN R77010
RCN R77058
RCN R77080
RCN R77090
RCN R77322
RCN R77027
RCN 9037
RCN R77030
RCN R77028
RCN R77059 |
| OtherInfo | Developed a bioassay method which measured the effects of adrenal hormones on mineral metabolism in collaboration with with James Francis Tait (FRS 1959)- first husband and wife team to be elected Fellows of the Royal Society on the same day.
Together wtih Tait she discovered and identified the hormone aldosterone.
At the time of her death she was the most senior woman FRS living in Britain. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Image | 
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| Source | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2006 vol 52 pp 379-399, plate, by Derek A Denton and Iain MacIntyre
The Independent (12 March 2003); Daily Telegraph (26 March 2003); Guardian (21 March 2003); The Times (31 March 2003)
DNB
AssocMaterial:
NCUACS 128/1/04. Papers deposited in Archives and Manuscripts Section, Wellcome Library, London |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/34227529 |
| Code | NA306 |