Cecily Littleton
{{Short description|Scottish crystallographer and horticulturalist (1926–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Cecily Darwin Littleton
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1926|11|15}}
| birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2022|04|14|1926|11|15}}
| workplaces = Haverford College
Fox Chase Cancer Center
| academic_advisors = Dorothy Hodgkin
| spouse = John Littleton (died 2009)
| children = 4
| parents = Charles Galton Darwin
Katharine Pember
}}
Cecily Darwin Littleton (15 November 1926 – 14 April 2022) was a Scottish 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.{{Cite web |title=The Darwin Dynasty |url=https://www.kuriositas.com/2011/12/darwin-dynasty.html |access-date=2022-12-27}} 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.{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Somervillians to be commemorated on 11 June 2022 |url=https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Commemoration-List-10.05.22.pdf}} At Oxford, she worked alongside Dorothy Hodgkin.{{Cite book |author=Ferry, Georgina |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1112373886 |title=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin : patterns, proteins and peace : a life in science |date=7 January 2020 |isbn=978-1-4482-1760-1 |oclc=1112373886}}{{Cite web |date=2014-01-14 |title=Dorothy Hodgkin and the Year of Crystallography |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/jan/14/dorothy-hodgkin-year-of-crystallography |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} 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.{{Cite news |date=2022-05-30 |title=Cecily Littleton, Darwin's great-granddaughter who also became a successful scientist – obituary |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/05/30/cecily-littleton-darwins-great-granddaughter-also-became-successful/ |access-date=2022-12-27 |issn=0307-1235}} She also worked at Haverford College, where she studied stellar evolution.{{Cite web |title=Haverford College Bulletin, New Series, 64-67, 1965-1968 |year=1968 |publisher=Haverford College |url=https://archive.org/details/haverfordcollege1968have}}
Like her great-grandfather, Littleton travelled to the Galápagos Islands.{{Cite web |last=Miles |first=Gary |title=Cecily Littleton, scientist, horticulturalist, and great-granddaughter of naturalist Charles Darwin, has died at 95 |url=https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/cecily-littleton-obituary-somerville-philadelphia-scientist-20220518.html |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=www.inquirer.com |date=18 May 2022 |language=en}} In 1989, she donated a chair belonging to Charles Darwin to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.{{Cite web |title=Darwin's Chair - The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University |url=https://ansp.org/exhibits/online-exhibits/stories/darwins-chair/ |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=ansp.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Belardo |first=Carolyn |title=Maybe Darwin Sat Here |url=https://www.anspblog.org/maybe-darwin-sat-here/ |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=The Academy of Natural Sciences |date=11 February 2015 |language=en-US}}
Selected publications
- {{Cite journal |last=Littleton |first=C. D. |date=1953-10-10 |title=A structure determination of the gluconate ion |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/s0365110x53002209 |journal=Acta Crystallographica |volume=6 |issue=10 |pages=775–781 |doi=10.1107/s0365110x53002209 |issn=0365-110X|url-access=subscription }}
- {{Cite journal |last1=DARWIN |first1=CECILY |last2=HODGKIN |first2=DOROTHY CROWFOOT |date=November 1950 |title=Crystal Structure of the Dimer of para-Bromonitrosobenzene |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/166827a0 |journal=Nature |volume=166 |issue=4228 |pages=827–828 |doi=10.1038/166827a0 |pmid=14780278 |bibcode=1950Natur.166..827D |s2cid=4222657 |issn=0028-0836|url-access=subscription }}
Personal life
Littleton met musician John Littleton, who would later become her husband,{{Cite news |date=1950-11-18 |title=MISS CECILY DARWIN A PROSPECTIVE BRIDE |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/11/18/archives/miss-cecily-darwin-a-prospective-bride.html |access-date=2022-12-27 |issn=0362-4331}} at a New Year's Eve party. Together they had four children. He died in 2009.{{Cite web |last=Yumpu.com |title=Somerville College Report 09{{!}}10 - University of Oxford |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/37743183/somerville-college-report-09-10-university-of-oxford |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=yumpu.com |language=en}} She trained in horticulture in the 1980s. Littleton died on 14 April 2022, of a cardiac arrest.
References
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Category:British crystallographers
Category:Scottish horticulturists
Category:Women horticulturists and gardeners
Category:20th-century British scientists
Category:20th-century British women scientists
Category:Scientists from Edinburgh
Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford