Yolande Heslop-Harrison

Yolande Heslop-Harrison is a British botanist known for her work on carnivorous plants, ecology, and plant reproduction including stigma morphology. She shared the 1982 Darwin Medal with her husband Jack Heslop-Harrison.

Early life and education

She attended Central Newcastle High School for Girls. She did her undergraduate studies University of Durham and graduated with high honors in 1941. She earned her Ph.D. at King's College, Durham University. From 1971 until 1976 she was an honorary research fellow at Kew Gardens. and later a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station.

Research

Heslop-Harrison is known for her work on plant physiology, especially insect-eating plants. She used electron microscopy to examine the structural forms of carnivorous plants and tracked radioactive material to track the movements of proteins through leaf structures. In 1996 Kew Gardens held a symposium to honor the work of both Jack and Yolande Heslop-Harrison and the proceedings were published in 1998.

Awards and honors

In 1982 she shared the Darwin Medal with her husband, Jack Heslop-Harrison, for their work on "plant physiology including fundamental studies on insectivorous plants".

Personal life

She met her future husband while they were undergraduate students, and they were married in 1950.