| Authorised form of name | Porter; Helen Kemp (1899 - 1987); biochemist |
| Other forms of surname | Archbold |
| Dates | 1899 - 1987 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Place Hale, Farnham, Surrey, England |
| Date of birth | 10/11/1899 |
| Place of death | The Grange, Goring, Oxfordshire, England |
| Date of death | 07/12/1987 |
| Occupation | biochemist |
| Research field | Chromatography |
| Biology |
| Plant metabolism |
| Botany |
| Plant physiology |
| Activity | Education:
At home; Clifton High School for Girls (1906-1917); Bedford College for Women, London. BSc (1921 Chemistry and physics); DSc (1932)
Career:
Postgraduate work, Imperial College, London; on research team which included Elsie Widdowson (FRS 1976) studying respiration of apples relating to sugars and organic acids; studied biology at even classes at Birkbeck College, London; attended courses in biochemistry at Chelsea Polytechnical College (1928); on team of Research Institute of Plant Physiology, Imperial College, London and Rothamsted Experimental Laboratories (1931); Visiting Lecturer in Biochemistry, Swanley Horticultural College; worked on starch metabolism, studying barley; transferred to Rothamsted (World War 2); Coris laboratory, St Louis, USA (1947-1948); given grant by the Nuffield Foundation (1953); Principal Scientific Officer, Research Institute of Plant Physiology, Imperial College (1954); Reader in Enzymology, Botany Department, Imperial College (1957); Professor of Plant Physiology (1959-1964), the first woman Professor at Imperial College; Second Secretary, Agricultural Research Council (1964); Advisor to the Secretary (1972); bequeathed money to the Royal Society
Memberships:
Biochemical Society (Chairman 1965) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 15/03/1956 |
| Age at election | 57 |
| Proposer | Ian Heilbron |
| Richard Laurence Millington Synge |
| Stanley Peat |
| Edmund Langley Hirst |
| Francis John Richards |
| Thaddeus Robert Rudolph Mann |
| Albert Charles Chibnall |
| Edward John Russell |
| Reginald Patrick Linstead |
| Frederick Gugenheim Gregory |
| Thomas Archibald Bennet-Clark |
| William Owen James |
| Relationships | Parents: George Kemp Archbold and Caroline Emily Broughton Whitehead.
Spouse: 1) (1937) William George Porter (died); 2) Arthur St George Huggett (FRS 1958), physiologist. |
| Published works | RCN 8963 |
| General context | Distinguished for studies of metabolic changes throughout the development of apples and barley grains.
She was the first to isolate fructosan from leaves and to show it to consist of mixed fructose polymers all with some aldose.
She demonstrated that the starch of cereal grains is photosynthesised in the ear.
She had a penchant for needlework and produced artistic tapestries in her spare time. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
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| Sources | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1991 vol 37 pp 399-409, plate, by D H Northcote |
| Royal Society code | NA5970 |