Elspeth Frances Garman is professor of

molecular biophysics Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in te ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

and a former President of the British Crystallographic Association. She is also Senior Kurti Research Fellow at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

. The "Garman limit", which is the radiation dose limit of a cryocooled

protein crystal Protein crystallization is the process of formation of a regular array of individual protein molecules stabilized by crystal contacts. If the crystal is sufficiently ordered, it will diffract. Some proteins naturally form crystalline arrays, li ...

, is named after her.

Education and career

Garman studied

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

at Durham University and then moved to

Linacre College, Oxford Linacre College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the UK whose members comprise approximately 50 fellows and 550 postgraduate students. Linacre is a diverse college in terms of both the international composition of its me ...

, for a doctorate in

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

supervised by Kenneth Allen which she completed in 1980. She taught at

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, ...

and switched to

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

in 1987. Since then, she has co-authored more than 80

Protein Data Bank The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database for the three-dimensional structural data of large biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. The data, typically obtained by X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, or, increasingly, c ...

entries and contributed to techniques for macromolecular structure determination. In particular, Garman has been amongst the pioneers of cryoprotection of macromolecular crystals and has made major contributions to the study of the damage that X-rays induce in macromolecular crystals. In a seminal paper in 2006, Garman and collaborators established the radiation dose limit for cryocooled

s, which was named the "Garman limit" after her.

Awards

In 2014 she was awarded the Rose Lecture and Medal at

Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

and the Humanitarian Award of the Women's International Film and Television Showcase. In 2015 she received the

Mildred Dresselhaus Mildred Dresselhaus''Mildred Dresselhaus'' was elected in 1974

Senior Award and guest professorship at the

Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI) is a research facility established in the context of the Universities Excellence Initiative by the German Federal and State Governments. The multidisciplinary and interinstitutional cluster is locate ...

. In 2016 she received the I. Fankuchen Award of the

American Crystallographic Association The American Crystallographic Association, Inc. (ACA) is a non-profit, scientific organization for scientists who study the structure of matter via crystallographic methodologies. Since its founding in 1949 it has amassed over 2000 members worldwi ...

. In 2008 she was awarded Major Educator by the University of Oxford. In 2014 she was awarded Most Acclaimed Lecturer Award by OUSU as well as an 'Individual Teaching Award' from Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) Division. Garman is the first recipient of the Sosei Heptares Prize, awarded in July 2018. She received an honorary doctorate from Durham University in July 2019. In August 2019, the European Crystallographic Association awarded her the 11th Max Perutz Prize. She was elected Fellow of the American Crystallographic Association in 2019. In 2020 she was awarded the Suffrage Science Life Sciences Award.

Public engagement

Garman has been involved in over 40 TV and radio programmes. In December 2017, she gave a talk as part of the Illuminating Atoms exhibition at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

. In 2014 she was interviewed for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

's programme ''

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 science programme, presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili , in which each episode is dedicated to the biography and work of one living scientist. The programme consists of an interview between Al-Khalili a ...

''. Garman also helped produce a video with the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

about "Understanding Crystallography". In 2014 she helped to create an animated video with Oxford Sparks on crystallography. In 2010 she gave the

Dorothy Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential ...

Memorial Lecture "Crystallography One Century AD (after Dorothy)". In 2016 she gave the inaugural

Rosalind Franklin Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, c ...

memorial lecture as well as the inaugural

Lawrence Bragg Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structu ...

memorial lecture.

Personal life

Garman married John James Barnett (1947–2010), an atmospheric physicist, in January 1979. There are three daughters. Garman is a keen rower, and obtained a rowing half-blue in 1978.

References

External links

The Life Scientific: Elspeth GarmanUnderstanding Crystallography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garman, Elspeth Living people Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford Alumni of St Mary's College, Durham Alumni of Linacre College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford British crystallographers Year of birth missing (living people) British women scientists