Evelyn Hickmans

Evelyn Marion Hickmans was a pioneer in developing a treatment for phenylketonuria together with Horst Bickel and John Gerrard. She was an author and co- author of publications about blood chemistry and childhood diseases.

Early life

Evelyn was born in 1883 in Wolverhampton.

Professional career

She took her first and master's degrees at the University of Birmingham. One of the first biochemists appointed in Birmingham, she worked closely in the 1920s with Dr Leonard Parsons, first Lecturer in the Diseases of Childhood appointed to Birmingham Medical School, later appointed the School's first chair in paediatrics (1928). Their work on fat absorption in cases of coeliac syndromes, would be further clarified by work undertaken by Parson's successor, Professor J. M. Smellie and a team that would include John Gerrard and Charlotte Anderson. Hickmans came to notice when she, Horst Bickel and John Gerrard were persuaded by a persistent mother to help her daughter who was suffering from phenylketonuria. They created a diet that was low in phenylalanine and the daughter's condition improved.[1]

In 1962, she and her team were awarded the John Scott Medal for their invention of a method for controlling phenylketonuria.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham (2008), "Evelyn Hickmans", Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists, 1880–1949, World Scientific, p. 198, ISBN 9781908978998
  2. ↑ Fox, Robert (1968). "The John Scott Medal". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 112 (6): 430. doi:10.2307/985940. JSTOR 985940. (Subscription required (help)).


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