I’m looking for suggestions for women to appear on the new £50 note

[WeeMadArthur]

Hi all, I’ve just seen that the Bank of England have opened nominations for the next scientist to appear on the new £50 note. They have to be British and dead, and I think it’s about time that a woman appeared on it but I’m not sure who to put forward as I worry that if I put someone less well known that it will be a wasted vote against all the better publicized male scientists. The link to the vote is app.keysurvey.co.uk/f/1348443/10fc/

Ros Franklin.

I voted for Rosalind Franklin and Ada Lovelace. (You can vote more than once.)

Marie Curie
Amy Johnson
Ada Lovelace
Emmeline Pankhurst

sorry, didn't see they had to be a scientist. Scratch Any and Emmeline!

RiverTam The person has to be a deceased British scientist. Apart from Ada Lovelace, your names do not meet the criteria.

Mary Leakey
Mary Anning

I thought Ada Lovelace was a mathematician not a scientist?

Maths is a science...

Cecilia Payne, who discovered that 'we are all made of stars'.

Although born and educated in England, she realised that in order to advance her career as a 'serious' scientist, she had to go to America and therefore achieved the body of her professional work at Harvard:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin

I'm going to nominate Dorothy Hodgkin.

I think a team would be good. Babbage and Lovelace together maybe. I’d like to show the whole DNA team except that Watson is both American and ethically dodgy.

Mary Anning - children learn about her in school, so she is more likely to be familiar to people, if there's a vite.

By insisting on it being a scientist they are excluding a lot of historical women.
Since women were denied education and opportunity to work in the sciences, it's hardly surprising we have relatively few to choose from.
But plenty from the arts!
Lovelace is fine and I'd be happy with that, but I think her contribution is over inflated a little.

Surely this is an opportunity to get the lesser known women scientists - not that there are many well known ones, but still - into the public eye? I will have a look at the poll as I'm wondering what they mean by British. Is British born enough? I hope not clearing off abroad for career reasons would remove women from the list. Cecilia Payne had to go off to America to be taken seriously so we owe her.

Another vote for Mary Anning!

My suggestion would be to keep your powder dry and then vote for Grace Darling for the £20 note as it'll be seen be more people (plus will have a very dramatic picture on said note).

FreeSpeecher, it's not one or the other though.

Surely this is an opportunity to get the lesser known women scientists - not that there are many well known ones, but still - into the public eye?

Yep - I also think they should be relatively contemporary, so Hodgkin or Payne. Anning and Lovelace's contributions were extraordinary, but look like 'ancient history' to girls or young women.

Ada Lovelace, Rosalind Franklin, Dorothy Hodgkin, Mary Anning all good calls - Mary Anning especially, as per the previous point about being a household name. Joining Churchill and Austen. Although I guess no one ever really knew who Elizabeth Fry was.

Would Mary Seacole count?

Other suggestions on the BBC website are Stephen Hawking and Alan Turing both of which I’d support even though they’re men, as representing disabled and gay people.

What about the awesome woman physicist who was overlooked for a Nobel prize for the discovery of radio pulsars (her male supervisor got it instead 🙄). Then she got a big prize recently and gave most of the £ to minority groups to help them to get into science. What a woman - Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

I literally get something in my eye when I think of her 😄.

I'm going to nominate Dorothy Hodgkin

Seconded! Not only did she win a Nobel, it was an unshared one. She had a long and very influential career, inspiring many others.

Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

Currently fails the deadness criterion, I'm glad to say!

Hertha ayrton?

A Hodgkin banknote could have some gorgeous artwork based on molecular graphics - the insulin hexamer is a beauteous thing.

Dorothy Hodgkin would be my too pick too.