Barbara Burford: a medical researcher who established NHS equality and diversity guidelines 

Barbara Burford (she/her) was a medical researcher, pioneer for equality and diversity in healthcare and a feminist who wrote about her lesbian and multicultural identity. She played a crucial role in developing equality guidelines for the NHS, which aimed to create a more inclusive environment for all patients and staff, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Her work was informed by her own identity as a lesbian and her experiences as a descendant of multiple diasporas, which shaped her understanding of intersectionality in social justice. 

She studied medicine at London University before going into medical research in the NHS, specialising in electron microscopy in postgraduate teaching hospitals. In the 1980s, at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, she led a team that was instrumental in several breakthroughs in heart and lung transplant surgery for infants and children. In the 1990s, she moved away from research, working first in IT and then on equality and diversity projects such as Positively Diverse—a set of equality guidelines designed for the whole of the NHS—as well as Race to Improve, which involved consulting with older people from ethnic minority backgrounds to improve services. After her death in 2010, the University of Bradford established the Barbara Burford Memorial Lecture, part of the annual ‘Making Diversity Interventions’ conference.

Charles Beyer: a locomotive engineer and a founding member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

Charles Beyer was a locomotive engineer who was a founding member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He was born in Saxony, Germany on the 14th May 1813, and moved to the UK to work in Manchester at aged 21, speaking little English at the time. After working at Sharp, Roberts and Co. in Manchester as the company’s chief designer, he co-founded Beyer, Peacock & Co, a prominent locomotive company, known for designing a condensing tank engine used on the newly established London Underground, and the Beyer-Garratt steam locomotive, which was run on 86 railways in 48 countries. One of the earliest customers of the locomotive company was in Sweden, which is how Beyer met Gustav Theodor Stieler, a Swedish engineer with whom he exchanged intimate letters. Beyer died on the 2nd June 1876. In his will, he left a large amount of money to what is now the University of Manchester. Beyer was a gay man who made large contributions to STEM. His story is a testament to the contributions of LGBTQIA+ individuals in STEM. 

Elke Mackenzie: a botanist who researched lichens in Antarctica.

Elke Mackenzie (she/her) was a lichenologist. A lichenologist is someone who studies lichens, which are formed through a mutually beneficial relationship between a fungus and an alga, or a cyanobacterium, or both. During World War 2, Mackenzie was part of Operation Tabarin, a secret mission aimed to reinforce British territorial claims, deny safe anchorages to German vessels, and do scientific research. During this time, Mackenzie became interested in botanicals, and served as the team’s botanist three years, during which she collected over one thousand species of lichen, many of which were not documented before. In 1971, Mackenzie was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and transitioned. The Farlow Herbarium, whom she worked for at the time, was appalled to hear about her transition and offered her early retirement at the age of 60. Although most of her publications included her deadname, she was able to acknowledge ‘Miss Elke Mackenzie’ in one of her final publications. Elke was a trans-woman living in a time when LGBTQIA+ rights were practically non-existent. 

Jemma Redmond: a biotechnologist who developed 3D bioprinters to create tissues and organs

Jemma was an intersex biotechnologist who innovated 3D printing technology, aiming to change the medical world with her work. She studied applied physics at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, completing this degree in 2002. Her experience of being intersex inspired her to pursue a Masters degree in nano-bioscience at University College Dublin, which she completed in 2012. She faced challenges due to her intersex status and gender, but Redmond's passion for technology and her groundbreaking work in bioprinting have left a lasting impact.  Redmond went on to co-found Ourobotics, a leading 3D bioprinting start-up. Bioprinting involves using 3D printing to print organic materials. This can be used to create organs, which would help address the shortage of organs for transplant. The company she co-founded was the first in the world to create a bioprinter which can use up to ten biomaterials at once, which helped address bioprinting complex tissues such as blood vessels within organs. Redmond died unexpectedly in August 2016 at age 38. At the time of her passing, Redmond had five patents pending.

Robert Boyle: a founder of modern chemistry and of the modern scientific method 

Robert Boyle is regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry and a pioneer of the modern scientific method. At Oxford University, he met many experimentalists and became part of a group called the ‘Invisible College’, a precursor to the Royal Society. Boyle conducted various experiments to study the properties of air using a vacuum chamber built by his assistant Robert Hooke, another prominent scientist. He's best known for Boyle's Law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between absolute pressure and volume of a gas. Robert Boyle was a gay man, something that was well known among academics however this is not mentioned in his piece in the Dictionary of National Biography. Over his life, Boyle published 42 books, with ‘The Sceptical Chymist’ being one of his most famous books and was foundational for modern chemistry.

There are so many other LGBTQIA+ individuals in the science and innovation area too. This list only highlights a few people who you may not have heard about before! Check out Schools Out website for more historical figures!

LGBT+ History Month is the time to find out more about LGBTQIA+ people who have made a difference to history, whether that be big or small.