Cecily Darwin Littleton
Born(1926-11-15)15 November 1926
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died14 April 2022(2022-04-14) (aged 95)
SpouseJohn Littleton (died 2009)
Children4
Parent(s)Charles Galton Darwin
Katharine Pember
Scientific career
InstitutionsHaverford College
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Academic advisorsDorothy Hodgkin

Cecily Darwin Littleton (15 November 1926 – 14 April 2022) was a British X-ray crystallographer and horticulturalist. She worked alongside Dorothy Hodgkin on the identification of the crystal structure of biomolecules.

Early life and education

Littleton was born in Edinburgh. She was the great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Her father was Charles Galton Darwin and her mother was a mathematician, Katharine Pember Darwin.[1] Her father worked on atomic theory and X-ray diffraction, and was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family. She attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied chemistry and graduated in 1949.[2] At Oxford, she worked alongside Dorothy Hodgkin.[3][4] Together they worked on the structure of biomolecules, including nitrosobenzenes.

Research and career

Littleton moved to Philadelphia and worked alongside Arthur Lindo Patterson at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. She developed the statistical analysis techniques to model crystal structures.[5] She also worked at Haverford College, where she studied stellar evolution.[6]

Like her great-grandfather, Littleton travelled to the Galápagos Islands.[7] In 1989, she donated a chair belonging to Charles Darwin to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.[8][9]

Selected publications

  • Littleton, C. D. (10 October 1953). "A structure determination of the gluconate ion". Acta Crystallographica. 6 (10): 775–781. doi:10.1107/s0365110x53002209. ISSN 0365-110X.
  • DARWIN, CECILY; HODGKIN, DOROTHY CROWFOOT (November 1950). "Crystal Structure of the Dimer of para-Bromonitrosobenzene". Nature. 166 (4228): 827–828. Bibcode:1950Natur.166..827D. doi:10.1038/166827a0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 14780278. S2CID 4222657.

Personal life

Littleton met musician John Littleton, who would later become her husband,[10] at a New Year's Eve party. Together they had four children. He died in 2009.[11] She trained in horticulture in the 1980s.[7] Littleton died on 14 April 2022, of a cardiac arrest.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "The Darwin Dynasty". Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  2. ↑ "Somervillians to be commemorated on 11 June 2022" (PDF). 2022.
  3. ↑ Ferry, Georgina (7 January 2020). Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin : patterns, proteins and peace : a life in science. ISBN 978-1-4482-1760-1. OCLC 1112373886.
  4. ↑ "Dorothy Hodgkin and the Year of Crystallography". the Guardian. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  5. ↑ Obituaries, Telegraph (30 May 2022). "Cecily Littleton, Darwin's great-granddaughter who also became a successful scientist – obituary". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  6. ↑ "Haverford College Bulletin, New Series, 64-67, 1965-1968". Haverford College. 1968.
  7. 1 2 3 Miles, Gary. "Cecily Littleton, scientist, horticulturalist, and great-granddaughter of naturalist Charles Darwin, has died at 95". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  8. ↑ "Darwin's Chair - The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University". ansp.org. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  9. ↑ Belardo, Carolyn. "Maybe Darwin Sat Here". The Academy of Natural Sciences. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  10. ↑ "MISS CECILY DARWIN A PROSPECTIVE BRIDE". The New York Times. 18 November 1950. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  11. ↑ Yumpu.com. "Somerville College Report 09|10 - University of Oxford". yumpu.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
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