Irene Manton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Irene Manton FRS
Born	(1904-04-17)17 April 1904 Kensington, London
Died	13 May 1988(1988-05-13) (aged 84)
Nationality	British
Education	St Paul's Girls' School
Alma mater	Girton College, Cambridge (PhD, 1930)
Awards	Linnean Medal (1969) Schleiden Medal (1972)
Scientific career
Fields	Botany, Genetics, Electron microscopy
Institutions	Girton College, Cambridge University of Manchester University of Leeds

Irene Manton, FRS FLS (born Irène Manton; 17 April 1904, in Kensington – 13 May 1988) was a British botanist who was Professor of Botany at the University of Leeds. She was noted for study of ferns and algae.

Biography

Irene Manton was the daughter of dental surgeon, George Manton and embroidress and designer, and descendant of French aristocracy, Milana Manton (née D'Humy). Her first name was originally pronounced and spelled in the French manner; but at 18 she dropped this and opted for "Irene". Her sister was the entomologist Sidnie Manton FRS. She was educated at the Froebel Demonstration School and St. Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith. While still in school she read Edmund Beecher Wilson’s (1902) The Cell in Development and Heredity prompting an early interest in chromosomes.

Academic career

In 1923 Manton attended Girton College, Cambridge. She found Cambridge unsatisfying, in part because the university as a whole was not yet welcoming of women, and later went on to study with Gustaf Otto Rosenberg in Stockholm. Manton obtained a lecturing position at the University of Manchester in December 1928. In June 1930 she received her PhD, with her thesis being on Cruciferae. She had to apply for special permission to continue her PhD studies away from Cambridge when she obtained the position at Manchester.

South elevation of Botany House (13/14/15 Beech Grove Terrace) at the University of Leeds, within which Manton made many of her seminal discoveries using the electron microscope. Originally three Georgian town houses, the property was converted into a single building after the University acquired it, also changing the entrance to the much less prepossessing rear of the building. Manton's electron microscopes and associated equipment were located in the basement, where the effects of vibration from traffic, etc. were lowest. The building is now Grade II heritage listed on account of its fine Georgian facade.

Much of her academic career was spent at the University of Leeds where she was Professor of Botany from 1946 until 1969 and Professor Emeritus thereafter and where her focus was on ferns and algae. The work with ferns addressed hybridisation, polyploidy, and apomixis and led to her 1950 book, Problems of cytology and evolution in the pteridophyta. As well as engaging chromosomes for the purposes of evolutionary investigation, Manton carried out research into gross morphological structure using the ultraviolet microscope. This venture proved to be an important stepping stone to her later fine structural research of the cell.

Her work on the algae was notable for its use of the electron microscope and her cytological work became known worldwide for the structure of cilia and flagella she revealed.

Irene Manton bequeathed her collection of modern and oriental art to the University of Leeds. Many of these pictures hung on the walls of Botany House in the University of Leeds during her career there.

Manton was a co-supervisor (with David Jennings) for then-PhD student Evan Benjamin Gareth Jones, who graduated in 1963 and later became a notable mycologist.

Honours

In 1969 Manton shared the Linnean Medal with Ethelwynn Trewavas.

She was the first female President of the Linnean Society of London, being elected in 1973 and serving until 1976.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1961 for her work on the ultramicroscopic structure of plants and on their evolution.

In 1969 she was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

From 1969 - 1972 she was President of the British Pteridological Society.

In 1972, Manton was awarded the Schleiden Medal by the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Legacy

A plaque at the University of Leeds commemorating discoveries made by Manton at the University.

In 1990 the Irene Manton Prize for the best doctoral thesis in botany while registered at an academic institution in the UK was established by the Linnean Society.

The Linnean Society also sponsors annual Irene Manton Lectures at University of Manchester and University of Leeds that have been held since 2014.
At University of Manchester

• 2021 Kat Coyte, University of Manchester, Worlds within our guts
• 2020 Eleanor Drinkwater, University of York, Metamorphosis: a 300 year story of intrepid women, rainforests and butterflies
• 2019 Jay Bradley, University of Nottingham, From man to mouse
• 2018 Sandy Knapp, President of the Linnean Society, Fieldwork in Fancy Dress
• 2017 Anna Gilchrist, University of Manchester, How butterflies move through Greater Manchester
• 2016 Sheena Cruickshank, University of Manchester, The body’s immune response to injury or infections such as parasitic worms
• 2015
• 2014 Dianne Edwards, President of the Linnean Society, Inaugural lecture entitled In the footsteps of Manton: Spores and early land plant evolution

At University of Leeds

• 2017 Jane Hill, University of York, Can we help species cope with climate change and habitat loss?
• 2016 Michelle Peckham, University of Leeds, A (scientific) life in imaging

In 1998, the tenth anniversary of her death, the Biological Sciences building at the University of Leeds was re-named the Irene Manton Building in her honour.

The British Phycological Society awards the Irène Manton prize annually for the best postgraduate student presentation at its annual scientific meeting.

See also

In Spanish: Irene Manton para niños