Nancy Lane Perham

Lane Perham was born in 1936, and is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was educated at Queen Elizabeth High School, where she was advised that women could not be scientists, only lab technicians.{{Cite web |date=2014-02-25 |title=Nancy Jane Lane (MSc'60): Opening the Lab Door - Alumni - Dalhousie University |url=https://alumni.dal.ca/building-a-better-world/nancy-jane-lane-opening-lab-door/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Dalhousie Alumni |language=en-US}} She undertook her undergraduate degree and a Masters of Science at Dalhousie University.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Papers of Nancy Lane {{!}} ArchiveSearch |url=https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/13938 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk}} Professor Dixie Pelluet, a professor of invertebrate zoology and genetics, was an important and supportive role model for Lane. After she graduated, Lane Perham was awarded the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire scholarship, and won the Governor General's Gold Medal, which allowed her to undertake her doctoral study at Oxford University. Lane Perham completed her PhD titled A cytological study of secretory processes in gastropods, with special reference to the problem of neurosecretion at Oxford in 1963.{{Cite thesis |title=A Cytological study of secretory processes in gastropods, with special reference to the problem of neurosecretion |last=Lane |first=Nancy Jane |type=PhD thesis |date=1963 |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990204697380107026}}

After postdoctoral positions at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Yale University, Lane Perham joined the faculty of the University of Cambridge in 1968, rising to full professor.{{Cite web |title=Dr Nancy Lane Perham {{!}} Girton College |url=http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-nancy-lane-perham |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=www.girton.cam.ac.uk |language=en}} She has been described as a "brilliant microscopist".{{Cite journal |last1=Berry |first1=Alan |last2=Radford |first2=Sheena E. |date=December 2018 |title=Richard Nelson Perham. 27 April 1937—14 February 2015 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.2018.0004 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |language=en |volume=65 |pages=317–339 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2018.0004 |issn=0080-4606}} Her research focuses on cell-to-cell interactions, such as gap junctions and tight junctions, especially in invertebrates. Besides studying cell structures and interactions, Lane Perham also paints them. Some of her works have appeared on journal covers and some were selected by David Hockney to appear in the Royal Academy of Art's 1995 Summer Exhibition.

Lane Perham is an advocate for women in science. She was asked by the Prime Minister, John Major, to chair the Working Party on Women in SET after William Waldegrave's 1993 White Paper on the British science system, Realizing Our Potential, had devoted one whole paragraph to women, but noted that they were the single most undervalued human resource in Britain.{{Cite book |last=Lane |first=Nancy |title=Science and the construction of women |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-415-53401-7 |editor-last=Maynard |editor-first=Mary |edition=1st |chapter=Women in Science, Engineering and Technology: The Rising Tide Report and Beyond}} The working party produced the 1993 report The Rising Tide.{{Cite web |last=Roberts |first=Stuart |date=2019-10-14 |title=The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/the-rising-tide |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=University of Cambridge |language=en}} Lane Perham co-founded the Athena Project, and was founder of WiSETI, a Cambridge initiative to advance women in science, technology and engineering.

Lane Perham was married to biochemist Richard Nelson Perham, Master of St John's College, until his death in 2015. They had two children together.

Lane Perham is a Life Fellow of Girton College at Cambridge. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1994 for services to science.{{Cite web |title=Page 13 {{!}} Supplement 53696, 10 June 1994 {{!}} London Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/53696/supplement/13 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}

Lane Perham has honorary doctorates from six universities, including from the University of Surrey in 2005.{{Cite web |title=Honorary Degrees of the University of Surrey: 1991 - 2005 |url=https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/general-information/honorary-degrees/university-of-surrey-honorary-degrees/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Roehampton University |language=en}} She was inducted into the Nova Scotia Science Hall of Fame in 2006.{{Cite web |date=2020-10-14 |title=Recipients - Discovery Awards |url=https://discoveryawards.ca/recipients/,%20https://discoveryawards.ca/recipients/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |language=en-US}}

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• {{CiteQ|Q42440068}}
• {{CiteQ|Q123359166}}
• {{CiteQ|Q89557138}}
• {{CiteQ|Q42468056}}
• {{CiteQ|Q36190226}}
• {{CiteQ|Q36188619}}
• {{CiteQ|Q42468056}}

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• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3W7WyV3t4 Interview on Induction into the Nova Scotia Science Hall of Fame], 2006

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Category:New Zealand academics

Category:New Zealand women academics

Category:Biologists at the University of Cambridge

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Dalhousie University alumni

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Category:People associated with Girton College, Cambridge