1970

Jane Mellanby was an influential member of our department from 1970-2006. She studied physiology at Somerville (1956-59), completed her doctorate in biochemistry with Hans Krebs on ketone-body production in the liver, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dunn School of Pathology until she joined EP in 1970. In 1970, with the help and encouragement of Professor Larry Weiskrantz, Dr Mellanby set up a Neurochemistry unit in the new Experimental Psychology building to facilitate collaboration with psychologists. Her own work involved the investigation of physiological and behavioural changes in an experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy.

In the 1990s, Dr Mellanby embarked on new research into educational achievement in secondary school children and university students. She was actively involved in the development of the verbal and spatial reasoning test for children (VESPARCH) which enables the identification of those who may be performing below their reasoning potential and investigative follow-up. This research formed the basis of her book, co-authored with Katy Theobald, Education and Learning: An Evidence–based Approach (Wiley Blackwell, 2014). Her work on the 'gender gap' at Finals in Oxford (the differential achievement of male and female undergraduates in Finals examinations despite no difference between the sexes in measured intelligence) remains definitive, if not conclusive. In 2016 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in recognition of her work in training doctors over a period of forty years in her role as a tutor.

Through most of this rich trajectory, Jane remained a legendary tutor and then emeritus fellow at St Hilda’s, and passed away in 2021.