Long-standing CHM member Professor Robert Freedman (School of Life Sciences) has been awarded a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship to support his study of the varied life and work of Ida Smedley MacLean (1877-1944). His research will examine her scientific work at the Lister institute, her role in establishing and promoting campaigning women's organizations (the British Federation of University Women and the International Federation of University Women), her pioneering work in breaking into male-dominated scientific bodies (she was the first woman Council Member of the Chemical Society and first woman Chair of the Biochemical Society) and how she managed to balance this busy schedule with an active family and cultural life. The project builds on earlier work carried out in collaboration with CHM on Women Biochemists, 1906-1939