Ele Willoughby, PhD

Happy birthday to Canadian 🇨🇦 geneticist Irene Ayako Uchida (1917-2013)! My #linocut is hand printed on 9.25” x 12.5” Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. Uchida is shown surrounded by chromosones, with anomalies (shown with pink arrows) due to radiation exposure, based on one of her research papers. A strand of DNA is hidden in the image (as her watchband).⁠
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https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/608036877

#printmaking #sciart #genetics #cytology #DNA #histstm #WomenInSTEM #chromosomes #mastoArt

Apr 8 at 11:30amWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD20h ago
Uchida didn’t set out to be a scientist. She was studying English literature at UBC, before she was interned with other Canadians of Japanese heritage during WWII. After the war, the United Church gave her the opportunity to complete her degree at the University of Toronto. Her family’s assets had been seized as she had nothing left for her in British Columbia. She planned to study social work at U of T but a zoology prof recognized her talent and recruited her for grad school. 🧵2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD20h ago
She brought the skills honed studying fruitfly chromosomes to Canadian hospitals when she started the first cytology department in the country. She traced chromosomal anomalies in offspring to mothers’ prior exposure to abdominal x-rays. While this did not make her popular with radiologists, her research helped prevent life threatening or altering birth defects. She was an expert in Down syndrome, President of the American Society of Human Genetics, 🧵3/4
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD20h ago
named Woman of the Century 1867-1967 in Manitoba and an Officer of the Order of Canada, had a lifelong love of language and grammar, a wry sense of humour and was a fan of a good glass of Scotch.⁠ 🧵4/4