Lesley Yellowlees

Lesley Jane Yellowlees, CBE FRSE FRSC (born 1953) is a British inorganic chemist conducting research in Spectroelectrochemistry, Electron transfer reactions and Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) Spectroscopy. Yellowlees was also elected as the president of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2012–14 and was the first woman to hold that role .[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Lesley Yellowlees CBE FRSE FRSC
Professor Lesley Yellowlees in 2014
Born	Lesley Jane Yellowlees 1953 (age 66–67) London, UK
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Spouse(s)	Peter W. Yellowlees [1]
Children	Sarah, Mark [1]
Scientific career
Fields	Inorganic chemistry Electrochemistry
Institutions	Royal Society of Chemistry University of Queensland University of Glasgow University of Edinburgh
Thesis	Spectro-electrochemical studies on luminescent complexes (1983)
Website	www.chem.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic-staff/professor-lesley-yellowlees

Early life and education

Yellowlees was born in 1953 in London, moving to Edinburgh at the age of 9 and attending St Hilary's Girls' School. Her father worked for Rank Hovis McDougall, and she has two sisters.[12] She completed her higher education at the University of Edinburgh, gaining a BSc in Chemical Physics in 1975, and PhD in Inorganic Electrochemistry in 1982. Yellowlees was the only woman graduate in her undergraduate class, graduating with a first.[13] Continuing on from this Yellowlees began her postdoctoral research in the University of Glasgow in 1983.[14]

Career and research

Lesley Yellowlees' first job was as an administrator in the National Health Service, but after moving to Brisbane, she went into electrochemical research[15] subsequently worked in the University of Queensland. Returning to the University of Edinburgh, to do a PhD on solar cell chemistry, Yellowlees became a demonstrator in 1986, a lecturer in 1989[16] and was appointed Professor of Inorganic Electrochemistry in 2005. She was the first woman to be appointed head of chemistry in the university.[15] And is also Vice-Principal of the University and Head of the College of Science and Engineering.

Honours and awards

A portrait of Prof Yellowlees, by Peter Edwards, hangs on the staircase of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Yellowlees was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2005[17] and an Honorary Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry in 2015.[18] She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012.[1] and is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.[19]

To mark the International Year of Chemistry, IUPAC selected 25 women including Yellowlees for the Distinguished Women Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award.[20]

She took over the presidency of the Royal Society of Chemistry on 4 July 2012 for a two-year term[2] (she was succeeded by Professor Dominic Tildesley).

The National Portrait Gallery has two portraits of her.[21][22] There is also a painting of her by Peter Edwards in Burlington House, the headquarters of the Royal Society of Chemistry.[23]

Yellowlees was appointed MBE in 2005 for services to science and CBE in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to chemistry.[17][24][25]

Yellowlees holds Honorary Doctorates from Heriot-Watt University (awarded in 2012),[26] and Edinburgh Napier University (awarded in 2016).[27]

Yellowlees was named the University of Edinburgh Alumnus of the Year 2013 in honour of her research, leadership and her work as an advocate for women in STEM subjects.[28]

In 2014, she was included in the BBC's 100 Women.[29]

Personal life

She is married to Peter W. Yellowlees, a Chartered Accountant,[30] and they have two children.[1][2]

References

1. Professor Yellowlees Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
2. RSC News, August 2012, pp 12–13 "Lesley Yellowlees"
3. Geary, E. A. M.; Yellowlees, L. J.; Jack, L. A.; Oswald, I. D. H.; Parsons, S.; Hirata, N.; Durrant, J. R.; Robertson, N. (2005). "Synthesis, Structure, and Properties of [Pt(II)(diimine)(dithiolate)] Dyes with 3,3'-, 4,4'-, and 5,5'-Disubstituted Bipyridyl: Applications in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells". Inorganic Chemistry. 44 (2): 242–50. doi:10.1021/ic048799t. PMID 15651869.
4. Noble, M. A.; Munro, A. W.; Rivers, S. L.; Robledo, L.; Daff, S. N.; Yellowlees, L. J.; Shimizu, T.; Sagami, I.; Guillemette, J. G.; Chapman, S. K. (1999). "Potentiometric Analysis of the Flavin Cofactors of Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase†". Biochemistry. 38 (50): 16413–8. doi:10.1021/bi992150w. PMID 10600101.
5. Colbert, M. C. B.; Lewis, J.; Long, N. J.; Raithby, P. R.; Younus, M.; White, A. J. P.; Williams, D. J.; Payne, N. N.; Yellowlees, L.; Beljonne, D.; Chawdhury, N.; Friend, R. H. (1998). "Synthesis and Characterization of Dinuclear Metal σ-Acetylides and Mononuclear Metal σ-Allenylidenes". Organometallics. 17 (14): 3034. doi:10.1021/om970130p.
6. Lesley Yellowlees publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
7. Bailey, P. J.; Bone, S. F.; Mitchell, L. A.; Parsons, S.; Taylor, K. J.; Yellowlees, L. J. (1997). "A New Bridging Ligand for the [Mo2]4+Dimer: Syntheses and X-ray Crystal Structures of the Redox Pair [Mo2{μ-η2-(NPh)2CNHPh}4]0/+". Inorganic Chemistry. 36 (5): 867. doi:10.1021/ic960712j.
8. Marcaccio, M.; Paolucci, F.; Paradisi, C.; Roffia, S.; Fontanesi, C.; Yellowlees, L. J.; Serroni, S.; Campagna, S.; Denti, G.; Balzani, V. (1999). "Electrochemistry of Multicomponent Systems. Redox Series Comprising up to 26 Reversible Reduction Processes in Polynuclear Ruthenium(II) Bipyridine-Type Complexes". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 121 (43): 10081. doi:10.1021/ja9916456.
9. Finn, C.; Schnittger, S.; Yellowlees, L. J.; Love, J. B. (2012). "Molecular approaches to the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide" (PDF). Chemical Communications. 48 (10): 1392–9. doi:10.1039/C1CC15393E. PMID 22116300.
10. Prof Lesley Yellowlees – International Women's Day lecture on YouTube
11. University of Edinburgh Research Explorer: Prof Lesley Yellowlees
12. The Herald 2 July 2012 Rebecca McQuilllan "You've got to have support because work is not always going to go well
13. Davis, Nicola (3 November 2013). "Lesley Yellowlees: 'I saw something no one else had seen'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
14. Yellowlees, Lesley (1983). Spectro-electrochemical studies on luminescent complexes. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.664125. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
15. MRC Clinical Sciences Centre Suffrage Science 2013 9–13 Lesley Yellowlees and Molly Stevens review successes in science while raising families
16. Edit (University of Edinburgh alumni magazine) June 2011 p 24 "Master and Apprentice"
17. "Press release: Appointment at the Palace for our president". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
18. Chemistry, Royal Society of (8 June 2016). "Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
19. www.ed.ac.uk Archived 11 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine University of Edinburgh "Professor Lesley Yellowlees MBE FRSC FRSE FInstP"
20. www.chemistryviews.org Distinguished Women Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award
21. Portraits of Lesley Yellowlees at the National Portrait Gallery, London
22. L. J. Jordanova (2000) Defining Features: Scientific and Medical Portraits, 1660–2000 (Reaktion Books) ISBN 1861890591
23. mag.digitalpc.co.uk Archived 15 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine Lesley Yellowlees
24. "No. 60728". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2013. p. 9.
25. "New Year Honours 2014". The Telegraph newspaper.
26. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
27. "A laureation for Professor Lesley Yellowlees #EdNapierGrads". hazelhall.org. 7 July 2016.
28. "Pioneering scientist named Alumnus of the Year". www.ed.ac.uk. The University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
29. "Who are the 100 Women 2014?". BBC. 26 October 2014.
30. Board of Governors, Merchiston School P. W. Yellowlees