Person

Hayward, Nancy Joan (1916 - 1989)

Born
1916
Victoria, Australia
Died
June 1989
Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Educator and Microbiologist

Summary

Nancy Joan Hayward was an Australian microbiologist who did groundbreaking work on the rapid identification of Cl. Welchii bacterial infections using the Nagler reaction, during World War II.

Details

Having achieved her Masters degree, Hayward initially travelled to England to undertake a Diploma in Bacteriology but the course was cancelled in light of the war.

Hayward was then awarded Medical Research Council grant to work at the Emergency Medical Service Laboratory, Watford, instructing army pathologists. While there, Hayward devised a highly successful method of testing for the bacterium Clostridium welchii (perfringens), a major cause of gangrene amongst the war wounded. She published her findings in the paperRapid identification of Cl. Welchii by the Nagler reaction (1941).

In 1943 she published The rapid identification of Cl. welchii by Nagler tests in plate cultures, a paper refining her methods.

After the war she returned to Australia, having been awarded a PhD for her work on Cl. Welchii (1946). On her return she spent time collaborating with Sir Edward (Weary) Dunlop.

She then worked at the University of Melbourne, with S. D. Rubbo from 1946 to 1952, and with E.S.J. King from 1959 to 1966.

Hayward also returned to the UK to work in 1963-64 and 1976.

Hayward worked in the Microbiology Department of the Alfred Hospital from 1978 until the end of her career.

She published many significant papers on bacterial infection identification and intestinal flora and bacteria.

Chronology

1938?
Education - MSc for work on the effect of sulphapyridine in meningococcal meningitis in children
1939
Career position - Awarded Medical Research Council Grant to work in the Emergency Medical Service Laboratory, Watford
1939
Life event - Travelled to England
1941
Career event - Published Rapid identification of Cl. Welchii by the Nagler reaction in the British Medical Journal
1943
Career event - Published The rapid identification of Cl. welchii by Nagler tests in plate cultures in The Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology
1946
Career position - Appointed to the Bacteriology Department, University of Melbourne
1946
Education - Awarded PhD for research on anaerobic infection in war wounds, University College Hospital Medical School, London
1946 - 1959
Career position - Appointed to the Bacteriology Department, University of Melbourne
1959 - 1966
Career position - Senior Lecturer, Pathology Department, University of Melbourne
1963 - 1964
Career event - Worked in the Bacteriology Department, University of Edinburgh
1966 - 1978?
Career position - Appointed to new Department of Microbiology, Monash University
1974
Career event - Worked with Professor William Gillespie in Bristol studying urinary tract infections
1978? -
Career position - Appointed to the Microbiology Department, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

  • McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Journal Articles

  • Stokes, E.J., 'Obituary Notice Nancy Joan Hayward 1916-1989', Journal of Medical Microbiology, 34 (1991), 239-240. Details

Resources

See also

  • Hooker, Claire, Irresistible Forces: Australian Women in Science (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2004), 215 pp. Details

Rebecca Rigby

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