F. Gwendolen Rees

Florence Gwendolen Rees, FRS (3 July 1906 – 4 October 1994) was a British zoologist and parasitologist.

Rees's career was at the Zoology Department of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she held positions of Assistant Lecturer (1930–7), Lecturer (1937–47), Senior Lecturer (1947–66), Reader (1966–71) and Professor (1971–3), becoming Professor Emeritus in semi-retirement in 1973. She was also Chairman of the School of Biological Studies (1972–3) and acting Head of Department (1948, 1969, 1970).

Her research was in the area of helminthology, focusing on systematics, comparative functional morphology, histology and life cycles of trematode and cestode parasites. Her work was important in elucidating the relationship of these parasites with their non-vertebrate intermediate hosts.

Rees was a founder member of the British Society for Parasitology, and served as its President (1974–76). She chaired the Editorial Board of the journal Parasitology (1970–81). She became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1971, the first Welsh woman to be elected, and was also elected Fellow of the Institute of Biology in the same year. She received the Linnean Medal, the highest award of the Linnean Society, in 1990. She also featured in a 1975 Vogue article on influential British women.

Source

 * Royal Society Sackler Archive: Rees; Florence Gwendolen (1906 - 1994)