Jane Gibson

Audrey Jane Gibson (née Pinsent; October 5, 1924 – June 10, 2008) was a British-American microbiologist and biochemist who worked in the field of photosynthetic bacteria. She discovered that selenium is required by the metabolism of coliform bacteria and described a new species of sulphur bacterium in the genus Chloroherpeton. She became a Professor at Cornell University in 1979 and was editor of the scientific journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Early life Born Audrey Jane Pinsent on October 5, 1924 in Paris, daughter of Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent (1888–1976), whom later became comptroller-general of the UK National Debt Office. Her mother was Katharine Kentisbeare (1884–1949), daughter of the Liberal MP, Sir George Radford. Her early years were spent in both Switzerland and Devon. She attended The Maynard School in Exeter, England and went on to earn a first-class honours degree in biochemistry at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1946 under the advisory of biochemist, Marjory Stephenson. In 1949, she earned a PhD in microbiology at the Lister Institute of the University of London under the advisory of Dr. D. Herbert. Career and achievements Whilst based at the Lister Institute in 1954, Gibson published her discovery that the trace element selenium, along with molybdenum, is an essential requirement for bacterial growth, specifically the production of formate dehydrogenase in coliform bacteria (e.g. Escherichia coli).