Jane Gibson

Born Audrey Jane Pinsent on 5 October 1924 in Paris, her father was Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent (1888–1976), later to become comptroller-general of the UK National Debt Office. Her mother was Katharine Kentisbeare (1884–1949), daughter of the Liberal MP, Sir George Radford.[1]

Her early years were spent in both Switzerland and in Devon. She was educated at The Maynard School in Exeter and, in 1946, obtained a first-class honours degree in biochemistry at Newnham College, Cambridge under the supervision of biochemist, Marjory Stephenson.[2][3] In 1949 she obtained a PhD in microbiology at the Lister Institute of the University of London.[4]

Whilst based at the Lister Institute in 1954, Gibson published her discovery that the trace elements selenium (which was previously believed only to be toxic) and molybdenum are essential requirements for bacterial growth, specifically the production of formate dehydrogenase in coliform bacteria (e.g. Escherichia coli).[2][4][5][6]

Following receipt of a postgraduate fellowship from the Commonwealth Fund, Gibson then spent a year working with C. B. van Niel at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University in California where she developed an interest in photosynthetic bacteria.[4] On her return to Britain she took up a post at Professor Sidney Elsden's microbiology laboratory at the University of Sheffield. Her work there involved characterising c-type cytochromes from photosynthetic bacteria.[5]

Whilst at the University of Sheffield, Audrey Jane Pinsent met her future husband, biochemist Quentin Gibson, in 1951. They married, started a family, and eventually had four children. Jane Gibson continued working part-time whilst raising her family. In 1963 they emigrated to the United States, where she took up positions, first at the University of Pennsylvania and then, three years later, at the Section of Microbiology at Cornell University where, in 1970, she was made an associate professor.[5] Her research focused on the transport and utilisation of ammonia and other small organic compounds by the main groups of phototrophic bacteria, and she became expert in their care and culture.[4] Gibson also studied the growth of cyanobacteria, co-authoring a paper that demonstrated the close evolutionary relationship that many gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli have with purple photosynthetic bacteria.[5] She was made a full professor in 1979 and in 1994 she won the Edith Edgerton Career Teaching Award.[7][2][4]

Gibson's research predominantly focused on green photosynthetic bacteria. In 1984 she described a new species of sulphur bacterium, Chloroherpeton thalassium, isolated from marine sediments found at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.[2][8]

In the latter part of her career, Gibson utilised the purple non-sulfur bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, to study the anaerobic degradation of the benzene ring - a significant step in the breakdown of polluting hydrocarbons in the environment.[4]

In 1983, Gibson was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Bacteriology, where she served until 1991.[5] Between 1989 and 1995 she was also editor of the scientific journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.[2] She was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.[4]

When Gibson's husband developed a stomach ulcer in 1969, they both decided to spend their summers at Woods Hole. In 1970, they bought a house and a sailboat and spent the next 20 years there. Jane Gibson taught microbiology courses every summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory, whilst her husband collected fish blood for his research at Cornell University.[7]

The Gibsons both retired from Cornell University in 1996, and relocated to Etna, New Hampshire. However, their winter months were spent in Houston, Texas. Her husband worked in a kinetics laboratory at Rice University, whilst Jane Gibson was employed in the microbiology department at the University of Texas Medical School.[7]

Gibson died at her home in Etna on June 10, 2008, aged 83.[4]