| Authorised form of name | Vaughan; Dame; Janet Maria (1899 - 1993); haematologist and radiobiologist |
| Dates | 1899 - 1993 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | 4 Albert Road, Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England |
| Date of birth | 18 October 1899 |
| Place of death | Churchill Hospital, Oxford, England |
| Date of death | 09 January 1993 |
| Occupation | haematologist and radiobiologist |
| Research field | Pathology |
| Physiology |
| Radiobiology |
| Haematology |
| Activity | Education:
At home, by governesses; North Foreland Lodge (aged 15); Somerville College, Oxford. BSc (1922, Physiology), BM, BCh (1924, Oxford).
Career:
Unable to pursue her medical career due to her mother's illness and death, and the need to entertain for her father, who was Headmaster at Rugby School (1924-1929); Assistant in Clinical Pathology, University College Hospital, London (1927) where she became interested in haematology; Rockefeller Travelling Fellow, working at Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Boston City Hospital, USA, her father having remarried (1929-1930); Assistant Pathologist at a non-teaching hospital (1930-1931); Bernard Baron Institute of Pathology, The London Hospital, to study blood and bone disease, first as Beit Memorial Fellow (3 years), then as Leverhulme Research Scholar (1 year); Assistant in Clincial Pathology, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital (1935); seconded as Medical Officer in Charge, North West London Blood Supply Depot, Slough (World War II); member of Goodenough Committe on medical education (1942); Trustee, Nuffield Foundation (1943-1967); worked with Rosalind Pitt-Rivers (FRS 1954) on nutritional study of force-marched prisoners of war (1945); member of the Royal Commission on equal pay for men and women (1944); Principal, Somerville College (1945-1967); member of the University Grants Medical Advisory Committe (1953-1963); Vice-Chairman (1948) and Chairman (1950-1951) Oxford Regional Hospital Board; research work funded by Medical Research Council (MRC (1947); retired (1967); featured in the BBC series 'Women of our century' (1984); died of bronchopneumonia.
Honours:
OBE 1944; DBE 1957 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 15/03/1978 |
| Age at election | 79 |
| Relationships | Parents: William Wyamar Vaughan, schoolmaster, and his wife Margaret Symonds
Spouse: (m. 1930) David Gourlay
Children: Two daughters Mary (b 1933) and Patricia (b 1935) |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 20918
RCN 20919
RCN 20920
RCN 20921 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished in four careers, two in science, one in higher education (Principal of Somerville College, Oxford 1945-1967) and one in social service notably as member and Chairman of Oxford Regional Hospital Board and as Nuffield Trustee.
One of the first laboratory-based haematologists, she was for 15 years a pioneer in integrating clinical and pathological observations with blood pictures and measurements of blood cells and author of The Anaemias - 2 editions, one of the first specialized books on blood diseases in the English language.
On translation to Oxford she formed and led a highly productive "school" investigating the metabolism of nuclear fission products and fissile materials, developing radio-autography and introducing fission track autography.
World authority on pathological effects of plutonium she was the first to recognize the potential effects on bone marrow resulting in leukaemia and allied dyscrasias. |
| Source | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1995 vol 41 pp 481-498, plate, by Maureen Owen
References:
E A Fellmann, 'The Principia and Continental Mathematicians' in NR 1988 vol 42 pp 13-34
Evans, S. (2024) 'Bloomsbury, Belsen, Oxford: Janet Vaughan - medical pioneer' (U. of Chester P.) |
| Code | NA8093 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| GLB/65/6/2 | Miss C M Bannister to Dame Janet Vaughan, North Middlesex Hospital, Silver Street, Edmonton, London | 24 May 1963 |
| GLB/19/1/13 | Janet Maria Vaughan, Principal, Somerville College, Oxford to Brown | 28 January 1960 |
| GLB/65/104/7 | Brown to Janet Vaughan, Principal, Somerville College to Brown | 1 February 1961 |
| GLB/65/104/11 | Brown to Janet Vaughan, Principal, Somerville College | 25 June 1962 |
| GLB/65/104/10 | Janet Vaughan, Principal, Somerville College to Brown | 1962 |
| GLB/65/104/9 | Brown to Janet Vaughan, Principal, Somerville College | 11 June 1962 |
| GLB/65/104/8 | Janet Vaughan, Principal, Somerville College to Brown | 8 February 1961 |
| IM/GA/JGRS/8149 | Vaughan, Dame Janet Maria | 1979 |
| EC/1979/37 | Vaughan, Janet Maria: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 1978 |