Marion Gilchrist (1864–1952)

In 1894 Marion Gilchrist was the first woman to graduate from the University, and the first woman in Scotland to graduate with a medical degree. Medicine was considered a very unfeminine subject but she ploughed ahead regardless. She worked as a GP in Glasgow, specialising in eye diseases, and eventually became an ophthalmic surgeon. She was also a prominent member of the British Medical Association and the first woman chairman of its Glasgow division. Read more

Dame (Anne) Louise McIlroy (1874–1968)

Hearing from the UK government that “the battlefield is no place for women” was not something that would turn young doctor Louise McIlroy against her sense of duty. When the First World War broke out, Louise and some fellow female doctors established the Scottish Women’s Hospital of Foreign Service, and served in France, Serbia and Salonika. Read more

Professor Delphine Parrott (1928–2016)

Immunologist Delphine Parrott made history when she became our first female professor in 1973. Delphine was a pioneering scientist who made major contributions to the emerging field of immunology, including the science of T-cell immunology which led to many clinical advances. As co-founder of our BSc Immunology programme – the first course of its kind in the UK – she placed Glasgow at the forefront of immunology research. Read more

Professor Muffy Calder

Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Science & Engineering, Muffy Calder is one of our many leading scientists and specialises in computer science. For three years, she was Scotland’s Chief Scientific Adviser, drawing on over 20 years of experience in science research at the University, advising ministers and being a champion of science for all. In 2016 she was ranked in the Daily Telegraph’s UK Top 50 Women in Engineering. Read more

Jumai Abioye

Looking to the future, we have an abundance of inspiring students currently hatching new ideas that will have an impact on the world we live in. Jumai Abioye from Nigeria is one of these students. Currently studying for a PhD in biomedical engineering, her research could create a tool capable of cutting viruses such as HIV out of the genome. She’s also building a company with a vision of improving the quality of education in her home continent. Read more

1765: James Watt revolutionises the steam engine

1776: Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations

1848: Lord Kelvin proposes an absolute scale of temperature, now called the Kelvin Scale

1867: Joseph Lister pioneers the use of antiseptic in surgery

1890s: William Ramsay discovers neon, krypton and xenon

1896: John Macintyre opens the world’s first x-ray department

1913: Frederick Soddy discovers isotopes

1926: John Logie Baird pioneers television

1958: Ian Donald reveals the world’s first ultrasound image of a foetus

1958: Sir James Black discovers the first beta-blocking drug to treat coronary heart disease

1967: Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers radio pulsars

1974: Graham Teasdale and Bryan Jennett create the Glasgow Coma Scale

2015: Sheila Rowan leads the Glasgow team that first detected gravitational waves

2009: We publish the world’s first Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary