20th-century British women biologists

Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was an English primatologist and anthropologist. Regarded as a pioneer in primate ethology, and described by many publications as "the world's preeminent chimpanzee expert", she was best known for more than six decades of field research on the social and family life of wild chimpanzees in the Kasakela chimpanzee community at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Beginning in 1960, under the mentorship of the palaeontologist Louis Leakey, Goodall's research demonstrated that chimpanzees share many key traits with humans, such as using tools, having complex emotions, forming lasting social bonds, engaging in organised warfare, and passing on knowledge across generations, which redefined the traditional view that humans are uniquely different from other animals.

British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer (1920–1958)

British chemist

British paleoanthropologist (1913-1996)

British birth control campaigner and paleontologist (1880-1958)

British vaccinologist

British virologist

British developmental biologist (1927–2007)

British scientist

British biologist

British botanist (1904-1988)

British natural scientist and author (1908-2005)

British mycologist and lichenologist (1854-1937)

British nuclear physicist and bees and beekeeping scientist (1912–2007)

German neuroscientist (1903–2003)

British biologist

English ichthyologist (1900–1993)

British zoologist and herpetologist (1897-1931)

radiobiologist

British plant scientist

British mycologist and botanist (1879-1967)

British phycologist (1901–1957)

Irish virologist

British biochemist and protein crystallographer (1940-2012)

British botanist

British pioneering plant pathologist (1874–1972)

English biochemist (1896-1987)

British biochemist (1907–1990)

Scottish biologist

British botanist (1905–1955)

English botanist (1859-1939)

British pharmacologist (1903-1990)

British botanist, botanical collector and botanical illustrator (1906-2006)

Scottish Arctic traveller and botanist (1889-1982)

English ornithologist (1933-2004)

Welsh botanist (1879-1948)

British palaeobotanist (1860-1953)

English botanist and mycologist (1859-1936)

British protein scientist and nutritionist (1875-1977)

Scottish marine biologist (1896-1977)

Scottish carcinologist (1901-1988)

British scientist and zoologist (1900–1986)

British zoologist (1902-1979)

British medical researcher

British zoologist and Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford

UK IVF pioneer

British botanist and agricultural scientist (1883–1953)

Scottish botanist (1900-1959)

Welsh zoologist and parasitologist (1906-1994)

British botanist and university teacher (1913–1986)

English botanist and archaeologist (1899-1932)

British writer, botanist, photographer (1864-1952)

British polar explorer and botanist (1911–1990)

English ornithologist, entomologist, explorer, lecturer, photographer, writer and scientific illustrator (1889-1941)

Scottish botanist, botanical collector and scientific illustrator (1933-2004)

British botanist

British Canadian developmental biologist

British botanist, zoologist and botanical collector (1939–2025)

Malaysian-British botanist (1946–2025)

British entomologist and botanical collector (1881-1969)