Pratibha Laxman Gai-Boyes

Born: 1948

Country of Birth: India or UK

Nationality: British

Ethnicity: Asian

Indian Institute of Technology MSc 1970; University of Cambridge PhD Physics 1974

"“It would have been very difficult without the scholarships because societal expectations for women at that time did not include careers in the sciences or chemistry. I would say that societal expectations, even today, as to what is good for women, including in the UK, do not always include scientific studies."(Wikipedia); "I thought that if I patented it (her ETEM microscope), no one else would be able to do work with it. I might earn some money, but I was not interested in that. I was interested in applications for many researchers, creating more fundamental science. So I decided not to patent it." (Wikipedia); "My moment of scientific illumination came when I realised it was possible to drill a hole on the side of the electron microscope through its imaging lens, so that I could introduce the reaction environment inside the electron microscope." (chemistryworld.com); "When I started out there were no female role models for me,’ she says. ‘Now, young women have senior women scientists to look up to. Women are still underrepresented in the physical sciences and hopefully they will look at people like us and realise what is possible." (chemistryworld.com); "Reading about Marie Curie when I was in school in India inspired me to become a physical scientist, but I was always fascinated by the logic behind science and how everyday things could be explained rationally," (analyticalscience.wiley.com); "With the ETEM we were looking at columns of atoms, but with AC ESTEM we see single atoms scurrying around in a chemical reaction, trying to find other atoms and making dimers, trimers and clusters," says Gai. "It's amazing; the whole living atomic world opens up in front of you."(analyticalscience.wiley.com); "It is more economical if we can train atoms to do the reaction we want rather than let them do their own thing. You can see the power. Instead of using tons of material, we could just use a few thousand or million atoms to do the same work. It would save a lot of money in terms of materials." (newscientist.com); "

— Pratibha Laxman Gai-Boyes

Field of Study: Microscopist; Materials Chemist

Institution/Corporation: University of York; University of Delaware; University of Oxford; DuPont

Degrees & Memberships: Member: Fellow of the Institute of Physics; Fellow of the Royal Society of chemistry; Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2014); Fellow of the Royal Society (2016); Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society (2018); World Technology Network Fellow (2009)

Awards: 2010 Gabor Medal & Prize; 2013 L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science; 2018 The Asian Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Science & Technology; 2018 named Dame Commander of the Order of the British empire for services to Chemical Sciences & Technology

Achievements: with Edward D. Boyes created the original atomic-resolution ETEM or environmental transmission electron microscope which enables the visualization and analysis on the atomic scale of dynamic gas-catalyst reactions underpinning key chemical processes; in 2009 succeeded in creating a microscope capable of perceiving chemical reactions at the atomic scale; also with Boyes analytical in-situ environmental scanning TEM(ESTEM) with single atom resolution, to visualise and analyse dynamic gas-catalyst reactions at operating temperatures, underpinning key chemical processes, at the atomic level and in real time; is founding Co-Director, The York JEOL Nanocentre, University of York; while at DuPont she discovered an atomic scale reaction site mechanism in catalysts, since called the Gai glide shear mechanism, key to efficiently producing biofuels and polymers; also developed antibiotic nanoparticles for healthcare applications and a green nanocoating process for strong polymers and coatings;