Page 8 - Periodic Issue 01

Vera Lupton Alison Sutherland Molly Went
Life as an undergraduate

!LISON 3UTHERLAND -OLLY 7ENT
(aka Jefford, aka Symons, then back to my original 3T (UGH S #OLLEGE
name to celebrate retirement)
3OMERVILLE 7HAT IS IT LIKE TO STUDY CHEMISTRY
AT /XFORD
7HAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE AN /XFORD
CHEMIST IN THE EARLY S Sitting at my desk now, I can see my shelves are packed
with folders which are full to bursting with lecture notes
To be one of the ~10% female intake was to enter a - perhaps this is a reflection of the advances that have
world where it really was raining men, even if the only been made in Chemistry over the past half century. All
compliment many could manage was ‘You’re quite clever of the new developments seem to have found a place in
aren’t you?’ the Oxford course, where they flesh out the backbone of
logical thought and scientific method which underpins the
The demands of the course were surprisingly few. And tutorial system and has remained in place here over the
the demands of Dorothy Hodgkin, our dreamy tutor at centuries.
Somerville, were even less. Apart from a very short and
basic ‘Scientific German’ translation (was it der, die or das I have decided that these notes are the first thing I would
bunsen burner?), I had no exams, tests or collections of save from a fire. Why? Because, being the notes written
any kind for the whole 3 years before the 3 days of finals. by Oxford Professors, the information they contain
Lectures and practicals were entirely optional and had is second to none. Certainly internet search engines
no obvious connections with one another nor with sleepy and even, occasionally, books, are no match for the
tutorials way up in the dusty museum attics. There were challenging tutorial sheets students receive each week;
so many much more interesting things to do elsewhere in working under world class academics is arguably the
Oxford. And it made no difference, a much appreciated most exciting aspect of Chemistry at Oxford.
undivided second of the times (which thankfully counted
as a ‘good honours degree’ on the research and job The three disciplines of Chemistry - inorganic, organic
fronts on both sides of the Atlantic) came along anyway and physical - seemed at first to fork into three entirely
after a pleasantly undemanding Part 2 with kindly deaf separate paths and try as I might, I struggled to find
Hume-Rothery. common ground between them. As the terms have
progressed, however, they have
ERH Jones was chairman of ‘my’ coalesced and there is a lot of
chemistry committee when I later satisfaction when a discussion in my
worked at DSIR Research Grants inorganic tutorial aids a problem in
Division. He swore he would my organic work later that day.
soon set up a ‘proper’ Oxford
undergraduate course! Overall, while it’s fair to say that
the dreaming spires entice many
A few years ago my tutorial partner to Oxford, my heart belongs to the
and life-long friend Vera Lupton and shiny glass laboratory down South
I popped into the Dyson Perrins and Parks Road.
found it very little changed. We were
pleasantly surprised to be mistaken
for Health and Safety Inspectors.
Dyson Perrins
Undergraduate Teaching
Laboratory

8
Periodic The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry