August 2, 1893 - Birth of Isabel Knaggs, contributed to the development of X-ray crystallography

She studied chemistry at Cambridge University and, after graduating, worked as a research assistant at the Cambridge Mineralogical Laboratory and taught geology at Bedford College.

In 1921, he began a PhD at Imperial College London (University of London) and subsequently obtained a research fellowship and joined the group of William Henry Bragg, the co-founder of the new technique of X-ray crystallography at the Royal Institution. In 1927, she obtained a permanent position at the Royal Institution.

Isabel determined the structure of numerous compounds, including that of benzyl, in collaboration with Kathleen Lonsdale, and that of the cyanuric triazine, a powerful explosive.

One of his most notable contributions was to establish that carbon atoms, in compounds with other atoms, adopt a tetrahedral coordination geometry. This was long before the development of Fourier synthesis techniques that allow the electron density of molecules studied by X-ray diffraction to be visualised.

She has also been credited with applying chemical concepts, such as valence and the importance of spatial configuration, to X-ray crystallography.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Isabel Ellie Knaggs