My mother, Nancy Lane Perham, who has died aged 89, was a renowned electron microscopist, cell biologist and champion of women in science. She was dedicated to teaching and research at the department of zoology at Cambridge University, specialising in cell interactions.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Frances (nee Gilbert), a journalist, and Temple Lane, a civil servant, Nancy attended Queen Elizabeth high school, where she was told that women could not be scientists, only lab technicians. Nevertheless, she went on to study cell biology at Dalhousie University, Halifax, graduating in 1958, and afterwards took a master’s degree.
