# June Lindsey

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**June Monica Lindsey** ( **Broomhead**, June 7, 1922 – November 4, 2021) was a British-Canadian physical chemist. Whilst working on [X-ray crystallography](/source/X-ray_crystallography) at the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge), Lindsey was influential in the elucidation of the structure of [DNA](/source/DNA). She solved the structures of the [purines](/source/Purines), [adenine](/source/Adenine) and [guanine](/source/Guanine). Her depiction of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in adenine crystals was central to [Watson](/source/James_Watson) and [Crick](/source/Francis_Crick)'s [elucidation of the double helical structure of DNA](/source/Molecular_Structure_of_Nucleic_Acids:_A_Structure_for_Deoxyribose_Nucleic_Acid).

## Education and early career

June Broomhead was born in [Doncaster](/source/Doncaster), England in June 1922.[1] She joined the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge), UK, in 1941.[2] She completed the requirements for her degree in 1944, and joined the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. [World War II](/source/World_War_II) forced her to leave her research career, however. She was encouraged to become a teacher and spent two years teaching science in a school.[2] She returned to Cambridge in 1946.[2]

She completed her undergraduate courses in 1944 at [Newnham College](/source/Newnham_College,_Cambridge), but Cambridge did not give women undergraduate degrees prior to 1948. She was awarded her bachelor's degree 50 years after earning it.[3][4]

She solved the crystal structure of a complex of [adenine](/source/Adenine) and [guanine](/source/Guanine).[4] She delineated the shape and dimensions of the two nitrogenous subunits of [DNA](/source/DNA).[4] She proposed that complementary [nucleobases](/source/Nucleobase) are bound together by [hydrogen bonds](/source/Hydrogen_bond), work that was expanded by [Bill Cochran](/source/William_Cochran_(physicist)).[4] Her research, particularly the prediction of [hydrogen bonds](/source/Hydrogen_bond), was researched and used by [Watson and Crick](/source/Watson_and_Crick) to determine the structure of [DNA](/source/DNA).[4][5] They created cardboard models based on the dimensions from Lindsey's crystal structures.[6] [Francis Crick](/source/Francis_Crick) worked opposite Lindsey at the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge). They did not recognise the contributions of Lindsey in their discovery of the [molecular structure of nucleic acids](/source/Molecular_Structure_of_Nucleic_Acids:_A_Structure_for_Deoxyribose_Nucleic_Acid).[4]

## Career

Lindsey was awarded her doctorate (Ph.D.) in 1950,[7] and then moved to the [University of Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford) where she worked as a postdoctoral scholar with [Dorothy Hodgkin](/source/Dorothy_Hodgkin) on [Vitamin B12](/source/Vitamin_B12).[8][9][10] Lindsey moved to [Canada](/source/Canada) in 1951. Before she left, [Lawrence Bragg](/source/Lawrence_Bragg) wrote to her requesting that she join him working on experimental and theoretical crystallography. In a letter, he wrote: “We badly need your hands to tackle knotty crystallographic problems, both experimental and theoretical. I wish all these things had come up while you were still with us; they would have been just in your line.”[4]

She worked at the [National Research Council Canada](/source/National_Research_Council_Canada) on the structure of [codeine](/source/Codeine) and [morphine](/source/Morphine). Her husband, George Lindsey, was stationed in [Montreal](/source/Montreal).[6][11] Lindsey left her career in [crystallography](/source/Crystallography) to look after her two children.[11] They moved to Italy on a [NATO](/source/NATO) mission in 1961.[11]

Lindsey collected her bachelor's degree in 1998, over 50 years after completing it,[12] when Cambridge granted Dr. Lindsey and 900 other "unofficial" female graduates their degrees earned prior to 1948.[7]

### Belated recognition

Alex MacKenzie, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, who knew Lindsey as a family friend, asked her about her career.[4] She told him about her 1940s work on [crystallography](/source/Crystallography), which inspired him to research her scientific contributions.[4] MacKenzie was amazed by what he found and did not want her work to go unnoticed; it is "something we should shout from the mountaintops".[4] He led the rediscovery of her contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.

## Personal life

Lindsey died in [Ottawa](/source/Ottawa) on November 4, 2021, at the age of 99. She was predeceased by her husband, George.[13][14]

## References

1. [FreeBMD: Broomhead, June M.](https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=148187224:6746&d=bmd_1634648714)

1. ["Ottawa scientist played key role in the discovery of DNA double helix"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3bZk0CStJo). *www.youtube.com*. Retrieved 2019-06-02.

1. Payne, Elizabeth (2019-04-08). ["The Ottawa woman who 'blazed a trail for women long before gender equity in science became clarion call' | Ottawa Citizen"](https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/the-ottawa-woman-who-blazed-a-trail-for-women-long-before-gender-equity-in-science-became-clarion-call). Retrieved 2019-06-04.

1. ["Meet the 96-year-old Ottawa woman who contributed to the discovery of DNA's double helix"](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/meet-the-96-year-old-ottawa-woman-who-contributed-to-the-discovery-of-dna-s-double-helix-1.5157205). *CBC*. Retrieved 2019-06-04.

1. ["It's A Hit: X-Ray Crystallography | Chemical & Engineering News"](https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i42/s-Hit-X-Ray-Crystallography.html). *cen.acs.org*. Retrieved 2019-06-02.

1. MacKenzie, Alex (2019). "The determination of purine crystal structures: an overlooked prequel to the discovery of the double helix". *Genome*. **62** (1): 43–44. [doi:10.1139/gen-2018-0165](https://doi.org/10.1139/gen-2018-0165). [hdl:1807/93291](https://hdl.handle.net/1807/93291). [ISSN 0831-2796](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0831-2796). [PMID 30485127](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30485127)

1. Strauss, Stephen (14 December 2021). ["Scientist June Lindsey played little-known role in helping crack the mystery of DNA's structure"](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-scientist-june-lindsey-played-little-known-role-in-helping-crack-the/). *The Globe and Mail*. Retrieved 18 March 2022.

1. Kass-Simon, Gabriele; Farnes, Patricia; Nash, Deborah (1993). [*Women of Science: Righting the Record*](https://archive.org/details/womenofsciencer000kass). Indiana University Press. p. [379](https://archive.org/details/womenofsciencer000kass/page/379). ISBN 9780253208132. June M. Lindsey.

1. White, John G.; Robertson, John H.; Pickworth, Jenny; Lindsey, June; Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot; Brink, Clara (1954). "Structure of Vitamin B 12 : X-ray Crystallographic Evidence on the Structure of Vitamin B 12". *Nature*. **174** (4443): 1169–71. [Bibcode:1954Natur.174.1169B](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1954Natur.174.1169B). [doi:10.1038/1741169a0](https://doi.org/10.1038/1741169a0). [ISSN 1476-4687](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1476-4687). [PMID 13223773](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13223773). [S2CID 4207158](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:4207158)

1. ["Contacts with Dorothy Hodgkin - Biographical Sketch of Clara Shoemaker - David and Clara Shoemaker Papers - Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University Libraries"](http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/shoemaker/singleton/page4.html). *scarc.library.oregonstate.edu*. Retrieved 2019-06-04.

1. Sandra Martin (2011-09-25). ["Nuclear physicist George Lindsey was DND's 'best mind'"](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nuclear-physicist-george-lindsey-was-dnds-best-mind/article1361182/). *v1.theglobeandmail.com*. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

1. ["The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on June 19, 1998 · 25"](http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/465774957/). *Newspapers.com*. 19 June 1998. Retrieved 2019-06-02.

1. Payne, Elizabeth (November 16, 2021). ["Obituary: 'Unsung hero' of science laid the ground work for epoch DNA discovery"](https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/obituary-unsung-hero-of-science-laid-the-ground-work-for-epoch-dna-discovery). *Ottawa Citizen*

1. ["June Lindsey"](https://ottawacitizen.remembering.ca/obituary/june-lindsey-1083727224). *Ottawa Citizen*. November 8, 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [June Lindsey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Lindsey) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Lindsey?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.