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Volume 168, Issue 3

A paean to the ineffable Marjory Stephenson Open Access

Abstract

It is now 75 years since Marjory Stephenson became the second President of the Society for General Microbiology (SGM). Around the time of her death at the end of 1948 many articles appeared extolling Marjory Stephenson’s contribution to the fields of Biochemistry and Microbiology. Not that much has been written about her since that time, which is unfortunate. Therefore, this brief review is intended as a form of redress and aims to highlight the role of this remarkable scientist in establishing the Society and in promoting Microbiology as a discipline. Notwithstanding the significance of these achievements, however, it is her overall impact on the field of ‘Chemical Microbiology’ and what she achieved through her research that are extraordinary, even by today’s standards. Marjory Stephenson recognized that in order to understand a biological system, the ‘whole’ organism must be considered and this can only be achieved by adopting an interdisciplinary approach: inorganic and organic chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, metabolism and ultimately physiology. Her scientific ethos serves today as a beacon for how scientific research should be conducted, and what we as scientists can learn about how to inspire and mentor the next generation. It is impossible to overstate Marjory Stephenson’s scientific legacy, or her overall contribution to Microbiology.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    • Principle Award Recipient: R.Gary Sawers
  • Future Laboratory for Green Hydrogen
    • Principle Award Recipient: FrankSargent
  • CO2Chem Network
    • Principle Award Recipient: FrankSargent
  • The Carbon Recycling Network
    • Principle Award Recipient: FrankSargent
  • BBSRC
    • Principle Award Recipient: FrankSargent
© 2022 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2022-03-25
2024-05-05
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A paean to the ineffable Marjory Stephenson
Microbiology 168, 001160 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001160
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001160
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001160
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