Dr. June Almeida


(June Hart)

1930 - 2007

Virologist. Born June Hart in a tenement next to Alexandra Park in the Dennistoun district of Glasgow, she was the daughter of a bus driver and left school at sixteen with only basic qualifications. She began as a laboratory technician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, but moved to London where she met and married a Venezuelan artist, Henry Almeida, in 1954. The couple moved to Canada where she worked at the Ontario Cancer Institute, and she became an expert at imaging viruses with an electron microscope. She returned to work at St. Thomas's Hospital in London in 1964 and later moved to the Royal Post Graduate Medical School, also in London. Her numerous scientific papers were recognised by the award of a doctorate. Almeida ended her career at the Wellcome Institute at University College London. She is known for developing new microscopy techniques. She produced the first images of the rubella virus and discovered the first human coronavirus. Many virology text books still contain her images. Almeida retired in 1985 and died in Bexhill (Kent).


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