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There were more than one hundred entries from students, alumni and staff, with the winner being “Helen”, in recognition of Helen Kemp Porter who was the first female Professor at Imperial.
Professor James Stirling, Provost of Imperial, and Professor Peter Haynes, Academic Champion for High Performance Computing, judged the entries and the winning name was submitted by Kay Barrett, from the university’s Department of ICT (pictured, alongside Professor Stirling and Professor Haynes).
“I was looking at all the great Imperial researchers on our website and Professor Porter’s name really stood out,” said Barrett.
“She was a female pioneer and as a woman working in the technology sector, I thought it was important to recognise the contribution women have made to science throughout history. I am also really chuffed that I now have bragging rights.”
The university amplifies the biography of Professor Porter:
Professor Porter, who passed away in 1987, was a botanist, biologist and biochemist at Imperial and a Fellow of the Royal Society. She was one of the first British scientists to use chromatography, which is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques that can be used to separate mixtures. She also pioneered the use of radioactive tracers, which can be used to explore the mechanisms of chemical reactions in experiments.
Being appointed the first female professor in 1959 was an important milestone in Porter’s career and a big leap forward for the male-dominated Imperial at the time. She had already been elected Fellow of the Royal Society three years earlier. She also held the role of Head of the Unit of Plant Physiology, which was based at Imperial and funded by the Agricultural Research Council, until her retirement from College in 1964. Professor Porter then became Second Secretary to the Agricultural Research Council, and in 1972, Adviser to the Secretary.
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