On February 11th 2026 it was UCL’s 200th birthday and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is very fitting as UCL was the first UK university to admit women on equal terms to men back in 1878!
To mark this momentous occasion, the UCL Earth Sciences Women in Earth Science group hosted a special event celebrating UCL’s first female professor, Dame Kathleen Lonsdale FRS. Our guest of honour was her son, Stephen Lonsdale, who told us about his mother’s incredible life outside science, including her time as a prisoner during World War II for being a conscientious objector.
We also watched a short video by The Royal Society about her life and work and listened to excerpts of a lecture she gave to The Royal Institution in 1970 about being a woman in science.
