Mary Pickford Lecture

6 October 2017 at 1:00 pm in the Hugh Robson Lecture Theatre

(Lillian) Mary PICKFORD, FRS FRSE

14th August 1902 - 14th August 2002, Professor of Physiology (1966-1972), University of Edinburgh

Professor Mary Pickford was the first woman to be appointed to a medical Chair at the University of Edinburgh when she became Professor of Physiology in 1966.

Throughout her life she overcame the barriers to developing a career in science for women in the 20th century. A meticulous experimentalist and engaging medical educator she was highly supportive of young scientists but was intolerant of weak scientific arguments from her peers.

A pioneer in the field of neuroendocrinology she made major contributions to our understanding of the central regulation of hormone release from the posterior pituitary gland and the control of renal and reproductive physiology. Her early discovery of the antidiuretic effect of acetylcholine injection into the brain, through control of posterior pituitary hormone release, provided one of the earliest insights into the role of acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter in the brain (J Physiol (1939) 95:226-238).

Her work in the 1950’s utilising dogs provided the pivotal insight that the posterior pituitary releases two independent hormones that have different roles in the body (J Physiol (1954) 126:329-346). Antidiuretic hormone (ADH), also known as vasopressin, controls water balance by acting at the kidney. Oxytocin regulates parturition and the ‘milk ejection reflex’ by acting at the uterus and mammary gland respectively. In addition to her body of scientific papers she published a popular scientific paperback ‘The Central Role of Hormones’ in 1969.

As a child, Mary decided to become a doctor but an uncle piqued her interest in research. A comment from Sir Cooper Perry of Guy’s Hospital, that “women are no use at that kind of thing” made her even more determined to pursue scientific research. After graduating in Physiology from Bedford College, London she taught History of Science part-time at University College London before joining the laboratories of A J Clarke and Basil Verney. During this period she also studied clinical medicine part-time and was admitted to MRCS and LRCP in 1933.

Mary became the first female member of the British Pharmacological Society in 1935. The award of a Beit Memorial Research Fellowship in 1936 forged her research career and she re-joined Verney, now in Cambridge. In 1939 she was appointed to a lectureship in the Department of Physiology at the University of Edinburgh where she remained until her retirement in 1972.

Mary was an accomplished painter and jewellery maker, founding the Edinburgh Women Artists group. Throughout her life she enjoyed being mistaken for the Canadian actress of the same name. Mary died of heart failure on her hundredth birthday and was buried at King Sterndale, Derbyshire.