| Authorised form of name | Auerbach; Charlotte (1899 - 1994); geneticist |
| Other forms of surname | Lotte |
| Dates | 1899 - 1994 |
| Nationality | German |
| Place of birth | Krefeld, Germany, Europe |
| Date of birth | 14 May 1899 |
| Place of death | Abbeyfield Home, Polwarth Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Date of death | 17 March 1994 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Cremation: Mortonhall crematorium, Edinburgh, 23 March 1994. Her ashes were scattered at Rhu, near Arisaig, on the west coast of Scotland. |
| Occupation | geneticist |
| Research field | Mutagenesis |
| Zoology |
| Genetics |
| Mutation genetics |
| Activity | Education:
Auguste-Viktoria Schule in Berlin-Charlottenburg; University of Würzburg; University of Freiburg; University of Berlin chemistry and physics (1924); began PhD in Germany, completed in Edinburgh; DSc (1947)
Career:
Taught in schools in Berlin; fled Nazi Germany for England (1933); worked at Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh, Lecturer (1947-1957), Reader (1957-1967); studied mustard gas (from 1940) and published the work (1946); set up the Medical Research Council Mutagenesis Research Unit, Edinburgh (1959); Professor, Edinburgh University (1967-1969); wrote a book of fairy tales 'Adventures of Rosalund' under the psyeudonym Charlotte Austen (1947); moved to Abbeyfield Home in Polwarth Terrace, Edinburgh (1989).
Memberships:
FRSE (1949)
Awards/Medals:
Keith Medal 1945
Mendel Medal 1977 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 21/03/1957 |
| Age at election | 58 |
| Proposer | Peter Brian Medawar |
| Reginald Ruggles Gates |
| Robert Russell Race |
| Otto Herzberg Frankel |
| Lionel Sharples Penrose |
| John Burdon Sanderson Haldane |
| Edmund Brisco Ford |
| Cyril Dean Darlington |
| Sydney Cross Harland |
| Conrad Hal Waddington |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Darwin Medal 1976 |
| Relationships | Parents: Friedrich (Fritz) Auerbach (1870–1925), chemist, Berlin, and Selma, née Sachs (d. 1955), daughter of a general practitioner from Jauer.
Grandfather: Leopold Auerbach (1828-1897), anatomist, who discovered the 'Auerbach's plexus' in the human intestine. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R72895
RCN R72871
RCN R72872
RCN R72863
RCN R72899
RCN R72894
RCN 16537
RCN R72881
RCN 16539
RCN 16538
RCN 25658
RCN 8293
RCN R72885
RCN R72858
RCN R72859
RCN 16540
RCN R72892 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished for her contributions to genetics, particularly in the field of mutation.
With Dr Robson, she was responsible for the first successful induction of mutations by chemical means, thus opening up a large new field of study.
She unofficially adopted two children, Michael Avern, child of a German-speaking companion to her own elderly mother, who had escaped to Britain and Angelo Alecci, a poor Siclian boy via the Save the Children Fund.
Supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. |
| 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 | Sources:
Obituaries: Times (21 March 1994), Guardian (02 April 1994); DNB
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1995 vol 41 pp 19-42, plate, by G H Beale |
| Code | NA5863 |