Enid MacRobbie


Enid Anne Campbell MacRobbie was a Scottish plant scientist who was Emeritus Professor of Plant Biophysics at the University of Cambridge and a Life Fellow of Girton College. Her specialty was biophysics, with particular interests in ion fluxes and stomata.
Born on 5 December 1931, in Edinburgh, MacRobbie was appointed "to a Personal Professorship in 1987, the first woman scientist in Cambridge to be awarded a Personal Chair." She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1991 and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1998. She was also a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists. Roger Spanswick was a member of her laboratory.
MacRobbie died on 22 September 2024, at the age of 92.

Selected works

  • MacRobbie, E.A.C. "ABA activates multiple Ca2+ fluxes in stomatal guard cells, triggering vacuolar K+ release." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97: 12361-12368.
  • MacRobbie, E.A.C. "Evidence for a role for protein tyrosine phosphatase in the control of ion release from the guard cell vacuole in stomatal closure." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99: 11563-11568.