Professor Tilli Tansey (QMUL School of History) was recently awarded the Paton Prize of the Physiological Society at a meeting to celebrate 100 years of Women’s membership of the Physiological Society. Her prize lecture, entitled ‘Maude, Nettie, Ghetel and George’, examined the lives of some of the women married to early Physiological Society members, in the latter part of the nineteenth century. There was a particular focus on ‘George’ -  Marian Evans (the novelist George Eliot) who endowed an influential studentship in physiology in 1878 in memory of her partner George Henry Lewes. This studentship allowed several later eminent physiologists (including three Nobel Prize Winners)  to start a career in research at a time when there was little state or other funding for such work. A new book celebrating a centenary of women physiologists, co-edited by Tilli and Professor Sue Wray (Liverpool) was also showcased at the day long celebrations. Professor Tansey’s work is supported by a Strategic Award from the Wellcome Trust.

See also http://livestream.com/refinerytv/PhySocWomensCentenaryEvent