{{Short description|New Zealand crystallographer (1927–1990)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = June Sutor | honorific_suffix = | image = June_Sutor_died_1990.png <!--Fair use image --> | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Dorothy June Sutor | birth_date = {{Birth date|1929|06|06|df=y}} | birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|05|27|1929|06|06|df=y}} | death_place = London, England | fields = Crystallography | workplaces = Birkbeck College <br> University College London | alma_mater = {{nowrap|Auckland University College (MSc, PhD)}}<br>Newnham College, Cambridge (PhD) | thesis1_title = The crystal structure of dipotassium nitroacetate and {{Non breaking hyphen}}nitropropionic acid | thesis1_url = https://catalogue.library.auckland.ac.nz/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=uoa_alma21190939600002091&context=L&vid=NEWUI&lang=en_US | thesis1_year = 1953 | doctoral_advisors = Frederick John Llewellyn | thesis2_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )--> | thesis2_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis2_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )--> | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = C−H···:O hydrogen bonds | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> }} '''Dorothy June Sutor''' (6 June 1929 – 27 May 1990) was a New Zealand-born crystallographer who spent most of her research career in England. She was one of the first scientists to establish that hydrogen bonds could form to hydrogen atoms bonded to carbon atoms. She later worked in the laboratory of Kathleen Lonsdale on the characterisation and prevention of urinary calculi.
== Early life and education == Sutor was born in New Zealand, in the Auckland suburb of Parnell, on 6 June 1929, the daughter of Victor Edward Sutor, a coach builder, and Cecilia Maud Sutor (née Craner).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-forgotten-female-crystallographer-who-discovered-cho-bonds/3010324.article |title=The forgotten female crystallographer who discovered C–H⋯O bonds |first=Andy |last=Extance |date=2 April 2019 |website=Chemistry World |access-date=2019-07-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&db=ONSDeath93&h=8739861 |title=England & Wales, civil registration death index, 1916–2007 |year=2007 |publisher=Ancestry.com Operations |accessdate=8 July 2019 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19290608.2.3 |title=Births |date=8 June 1929 |work=Auckland Star |accessdate=8 July 2019 |page=1}}</ref> She was educated at St Cuthbert's College,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19451213.2.106 |title=School prizes |date=13 December 1945 |work=Auckland Star |accessdate=9 July 2019 |page=7}}</ref><ref name="In memorium">{{cite web |url=https://ddcy2gtj9v0dh.cloudfront.net/Uploads/v/h/z/June-Sutor---In-Memoriam.pdf |title=June Sutor 1929–1990 |date=July 1990 |publisher=All Saint's Church, Talbot Road, Highgate |accessdate=9 July 2019 |archive-date=19 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211219170843/https://ddcy2gtj9v0dh.cloudfront.net/Uploads/v/h/z/June-Sutor---In-Memoriam.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> and went on to study chemistry at Auckland University College.<ref name=":0" /> She graduated Master of Science with first-class honours in 1952 and, supervised by Frederick John Llewellyn, she graduated with her first PhD in 1954.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/university22.html|title=NZ University Graduates 1870-1961|website=Shadows of Time|access-date=2019-07-07}}</ref> She published her first single-author ''Acta Crystallographica'' paper, ''The unit cell and space group of ethyl nitrolic acid'', whilst a student.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sutor|first=D. J.|date=1953|title=The unit cell and space group of ethyl nitrolic acid|journal=Acta Crystallographica|language=en|volume=6|issue=10|pages=811|doi=10.1107/S0365110X53002350|bibcode=1953AcCry...6..811S |issn=0365-110X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scanz.iucr.org/history/lab-sketches/university-of-auckland|title=SCANZ {{!}} University of Auckland|website=scanz.iucr.org|access-date=2019-07-07|archive-date=7 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707190634/https://scanz.iucr.org/history/lab-sketches/university-of-auckland|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1954, Sutor went to the United Kingdom, and took up a travelling scholarship and Bathurst Studentship at Newnham College, Cambridge.<ref name="In memorium"/> There, she earned a PhD on the structures of purines and nucleosides in 1958.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="In memorium"/> During her second doctorate, Sutor identified the structure of caffeine, and showed that it can readily recrystallise in its monohydrate form.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sutor|first=D. J.|date=1958-07-10|title=The structures of the pyrimidines and purines. VII. The crystal structure of caffeine|journal=Acta Crystallographica|language=en|volume=11|issue=7|pages=453–458|doi=10.1107/S0365110X58001286|issn=0365-110X|doi-access=free|bibcode=1958AcCry..11..453S }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kolehmainen|first1=Erkki|last2=Nonappa|date=2016|title=Caffeine as a Gelator|journal=Gels|language=en|volume=2|issue=1|pages=9|doi=10.3390/gels2010009|pmid=30674141|pmc=6318762|doi-access=free}}</ref>
== Research and career == Sutor moved to Australia in 1958, working as a research officer in Melbourne.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="In memorium"/> In 1959, she returned to Britain to take up an Imperial Chemical Industries Fellowship at Birkbeck College, where she worked with J. D. Bernal, Rosalind Franklin, and Aaron Klug on the application of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1HqCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA193 |title=World Directory of Crystallographers and of Other Scientists Employing Crystallographic Methods|date=2013-11-11|publisher=Springer |isbn=9789401737036|editor-last=Maslen |editor-first=E.N. |accessdate=9 July 2019}}</ref> She worked on hydrogen bonding and computational chemistry, writing programs for the EDSAC.<ref name=":0" /> Sutor used the concept of electronegativity, introduced by Linus Pauling in 1932, to explain hydrogen bonds.<ref name=":0" /> She investigated the Van der Waals distances that are shortened during hydrogen bonding, and based on her findings proposed that a C–H group that is activated by partial ionization can take part in hydrogen bonding (so called C-H···O bonds).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=June Sutor|first=D.|date=1962|title=The C–H… O Hydrogen Bond in Crystals|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=195|issue=4836|pages=68–69|doi=10.1038/195068a0|bibcode=1962Natur.195...68J|s2cid=4179976|issn=1476-4687}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sutor|first=D. June|date=1963-01-01|title=204. Evidence for the existence of C–H⋯O hydrogen bonds in crystals|url=https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/1963/jr/jr9630001105|journal=Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed)|language=en|pages=1105–1110|doi=10.1039/JR9630001105|issn=0368-1769|url-access=subscription}}</ref> She investigated the structure of theacrine, DNA and other purine compounds.<ref name=":0" /> In 1962, Sutor published the first crystallographic evidence for C-H ⋯O bonding.<ref name=":1" /> Her work expanded from small-molecule crystal structures to alkaloids.<ref name=":1" />
Her work was criticised by Jerry Donohue, who disputed her Van der Waals distances and claimed that she had data problems. At the time, Donohue's textbooks were in most laboratories, and he was a common reviewer for academic papers including crystal structures.<ref name=":0" /> Carl Schwalbe has speculated that this could have been due to academic jealousy, saying in 2019 that "acceptance of women in science, particularly the physical sciences, was by no means complete".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Schwalbe|first=Carl H.|date=2012-07-01|title=June Sutor and the C–H ··· O hydrogen bonding controversy|journal=Crystallography Reviews|volume=18|issue=3|pages=191–206|doi=10.1080/0889311X.2012.674945|bibcode=2012CryRv..18..191S |s2cid=96289568|issn=0889-311X}}</ref>
Sutor moved back to New Zealand, working briefly for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research before taking leave to look after her father, who died in 1964.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.purewa.co.nz/view/?id=54968 |title=Burial & cremation details |publisher=Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium |accessdate=9 July 2019}}</ref> In 1966, Sutor was offered a job by Kathleen Lonsdale at University College London. She studied urinary calculi and searched for ways to prevent them.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wooley|first1=Susan E.|last2=Sutor|first2=D. June|date=1971-01-01|title=A statistical survey of the composition of gallstones in eight countries|url= |journal=Gut|language=en|volume=12|issue=1|pages=55–64|doi=10.1136/gut.12.1.55|issn=0017-5749|pmid=5543374|pmc=1411468}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hermon Dowling|first1=R.|last2=Rose|first2=G. Alan|last3=June Sutor|first3=D.|title=Hyperoxaluria and Renal Calculi in Ileal Disease|date=1971-05-29|journal=The Lancet|series=Originally published as Volume 1, Issue 7709|volume=297|issue=7709|pages=1103–1106|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(71)91840-X|pmid=4102626|issn=0140-6736}}</ref> Sutor had good contacts with hospital staff, and even managed to secure Napoléon III's bladder stone. She was supported by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation.<ref name=":0" /> In 1979, Sutor became partially sighted, and more "interested in the theoretical aspects of stone growth".<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=June Sutor|first=D.|date=1981-01-01|title=Crystal growth in bile|journal=Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization|volume=4|issue=1|pages=47–57|doi=10.1016/0146-3535(81)90047-2|issn=0146-3535}}</ref>
==Death and legacy== Sutor died of cancer in London on 27 May 1990.<ref name=":0" /> She bequeathed her estate of over £500,000 for the establishment of June Sutor Fellowships for research at Moorfields Eye Hospital into the prevention of blindness.<ref name=":0" />
Sutor's predictions on the hydrogen bond were confirmed by Robin Taylor and Olga Kennard in the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=Robin|last2=Kennard|first2=Olga|date=1984-09-01|title=Hydrogen-bond geometry in organic crystals|journal=Accounts of Chemical Research|volume=17|issue=9|pages=320–326|doi=10.1021/ar00105a004|issn=0001-4842}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=Robin|last2=Kennard|first2=Olga|date=1982-09-01|title=Crystallographic evidence for the existence of CH.cntdot..cntdot..cntdot.O, CH.cntdot..cntdot..cntdot.N and CH.cntdot..cntdot..cntdot.Cl hydrogen bonds|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=104|issue=19|pages=5063–5070|doi=10.1021/ja00383a012|bibcode=1982JAChS.104.5063T |issn=0002-7863}}</ref> Their work included 113 neutron diffraction patterns in the Cambridge Crystallographic Database, and found that Sutor's C–H⋯O bond distances were correct to within {{convert|0.03|Å|nm|abbr=on|3}}.<ref name=":0" /> Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju dedicated a chapter of his book on hydrogen bonds to the work of Sutor, and Carl Schwalbe compared the structures cited by Sutor to modern redeterminations.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Desiraju|first=Gautam R.|date=1996-01-01|title=The C−H···O Hydrogen Bond: Structural Implications and Supramolecular Design|journal=Accounts of Chemical Research|volume=29|issue=9|pages=441–449|doi=10.1021/ar950135n|pmid=23618410|issn=0001-4842}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutor, Jane}} Category:1929 births Category:1990 deaths Category:People from Auckland Category:People educated at St Cuthbert's College, Auckland Category:University of Auckland alumni Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:New Zealand women chemists Category:Crystallographers Category:People associated with Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand) Category:People associated with Birkbeck, University of London Category:People associated with University College London Category:New Zealand expatriates in England Category:Deaths from cancer in England Category:20th-century chemists