Margaret Jope

Margaret Jope (1913-2004) was a biochemist, born Henrietta Margaret Halliday in Peterhead, Scotland.

She took her degree in chemistry at Aberdeen University, and her DPhil at Somerville College, Oxford. She met her future husband Martyn Jope while working at the Dyson Perrin chemistry laboratory, Oxford University. After they were married, Margaret accompanied Martyn to Belfast, where he later became Professor of Archaeology at Queens University.

Margaret continued her research while at Belfast, in the Geology Department, where she worked primarily on brachiopods, especially on their shell protein (see for example American Zoologist, 1997;17:133-140, or visit http://icb.oxfordjournals.org). Her other research interests included the crystallisation of haemoglobin (see Haemoglobin, Barcroft Memorial Conference, Butterworths Scientific Publications, London, 1949, pp269-278, with JRP O'Brien), and working with Martyn, made studies of animal bones, especially bird bones, at archaeological sites mainly in N. Ireland and Oxfordshire.