Hanson, Jean (1919–1973)
Hanson, Jean (1919–1973)
British biophysicist and zoologist. Born Emmeline Jean Hanson in 1919 in England; died in 1973; educated at Burton-upon-Trent High School for Girls and Bedford College, London, first class, zoology, 1941; Ph.D., King's College, London.
Born in 1919, Jean Hanson worked at Strangeways Laboratory during World War II. In 1948, she joined the Biophysics Research Unit at King's College, London, where she received her Ph.D. in 1951. From 1953 to 1954, she studied electron microscopy, working on muscular contraction and other problems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hanson then returned to England to rejoin the Biophysics Unit and continued her study of molecular aspects of contraction mechanism of muscle. She was a professor of biology at London University in 1966 and director of the Muscle Biophysics Unit, King's College, London, from 1970 to 1973.