Pioneering women

Professor Anita Harding 

As part of a public art project celebrating pioneering women neuroscientists for UCL’s new world-class neuroscience building, currently under construction at Grays Inn Road, London, the life and work of Professor Anita Harding will be remembered.

The interactive, celebratory and educational installation will highlight and celebrate the major contribution of inspirational and pioneering women neuroscientists of the past and present as well as looking to the future. 

Valda Jackson 

As part of the project, artist Valda Jackson has been chosen to create a permanent memorial to Anita Harding  in a new commission by UCL for UCL Public Art in collaboration with leading public art commissioning organisation, UP Projects.

Valda Jackson was selected for her proposal from the shortlisted artists by a panel of UCL staff and academics and artists, including Institute Director Professor Mike Hanna; Professor Helene Plun-Favreau; Professor Gabriel Lignani; Director of Public Art, Sam Wilkinson, Annie Cattrell, public artist at Grays Inn Road, and Emma Underhill, Founder & Artistic Director, at UP Projects.

Anita Harding (1952-1995) was the first female professor of Clinical Neurology in the UK, whose major discoveries included the first identification of a mitochondrial DNA mutation in human disease, alongside Ian Holt and John Morgan-Hughes. She spearheaded the first neurogenetics research group in the UK at the Institute of Neurology, while still a lecturer and was just weeks away from taking up a post as the head of the Clinical Neurology before she died from colon cancer, aged 42. 

Described by patients and colleagues as an outstanding scientist, with a wonderful sense of humour, Anita will be remembered as one of many pioneering women who successfully navigated a male-dominated environment to make major contributions to neuroscience and the practice of clinical neurology and neurology at Queen Square, since the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square by the Chandler sisters in 1860. 

Engagement

In July 2025, Valda led an engagement workshop with three of Professor Anita Harding’s former research fellows and students: Professor Mary Reilly, Professor of Neurology, Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Professor Thomas Warner, Chair of Clinical Neurology & Director of the Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL, Clinical and Movement Neurosciences; and Professor Nicholas Wood, Professor of Clinical Neurogenetics, UCL Clinical and Movement Neurosciences.

Valda started the workshop with a warm-up creative exercise, inviting participants to sculpt elephant shapes out of clay behind their backs. Guided by thoughtful questions and prompts about Anita’s life and appearance, the workshop created a space for sharing memories and reflections about Anita. Through these conversations, Valda gained valuable insights into Anita’s appearance, character and legacy, helping shape how she will be represented in the upcoming memorial sculpture.