Kathleen Lonsdale (January 23, 1901 - 1971) was a prominent crystallographer, who discovered the planar hexagonal structure of benzene. Lonsdale was born Kathleen Yardley in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. Her family moved to England when she was five.
She earned a B.S. at Bedford College for Women in 1922 and an M.S. at University College, London 1924. She was the first woman professor at that institution. In 1927 she married Thomas Lonsdale. They had three children--Jane, Nancy, and Stephen. Lonsdale became a Quaker in 1935. As such, she was a committed pacifist and served time in prison during World War II because she refused to register for civil defense duties or to pay the resulting fine.
Lonsdale obtained a D.Sc. from University College, London in 1936. In addition to discovering the structure of benzene, Lonsdale worked on the synthesis of diamonds. A type of diamond is named lonsdaleite in her honour. She was a pioneer in the use of X-rays to study crystals. Lonsdale became one of the first two female fellows of the Royal Society of London in 1945. In 1949 Lonsdale became a professor of chemistry and the head of the Department of Crystallography at University College, London. She was the first woman professor at that college, a position she held until 1968 when she was named Professor Emeritus.
She was given the title Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956. Lonsdale became the first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography in 1966. Lonsdale was active in encouraging young people to study science and was the first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1967.
A sciences building opened in the 1990s on the University of Limerick campus is named the "Kathleen Lonsdale Building" in her honour.
Selected Writings
- "The Structure of the Benzene Ring in Hexamethylbenzene," Proceedings of the Royal Society 123A: 494 (1929).
- "An X-Ray Analysis of the Structure of Hexachlorobenzene, Using the Fourier Method," Proceedings of the Royal Society 133A: 536 (1931).
- Simplified Structure Factor and Electron Density Formulae for the 230 Space Groups of Mathematical Crystallography, G. Bell & Sons, London, 1936.
- "Diamonds, Natural and Artificial," Nature 153: 669 (1944).
- "Divergent Beam X-ray Photography of Crystals," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 240A: 219 (1947).
- Crystals and X-Rays, G. Bell & Sons, London, 1948.
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