Hayward, Nancy Joan (1916 - 1989)

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

Publication - Paper: Rapid identification of Cl. Welchii by the Nagler reaction in the British Medical Journal

1943

Publication - Paper: 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 regularly 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

• 'Hayward, Nancy Joan (1916-19890630)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1491920. Details

See also

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