Catherine Cassels Steele (17 September 1903 – 3 December 1995) was a Scottish scientist who is best known for her expertise in plant biochemistry. She wrote ''An Introduction to Plant Biochemistry''.

Early life and education

Steele was the daughter of James Steele, the former headmaster of St Monance school in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

. Steele's early education began at

West Calder West Calder ( sco, Wast Cauder, gd, Caladar an Iar) is a village in the council area of West Lothian, Scotland, located four miles west of Livingston, West Lothian, Livingston. Historically it is within the County of Midlothian. The village was ...

at the age of five. After moving to

St Monans ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

and by age 12, her secondary educational experience occurred at

Waid Academy The Waid Academy is a public secondary school in Anstruther, Fife. The school's catchment area extends to as far as Elie and Colinsburgh to the west and Crail to the east (the East Neuk boundaries) but accepts pupils from towns such as Leven, Up ...

Anstruther Anstruther ( sco, Ainster or Enster ; gd, Ànsruthair) is a small coastal resort town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth and south-southeast of St Andrews. The town comprises two settlements, Anstruther ...

. In 1920, Steele entered the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

graduating in 1924 with a First Class Honours in mathematics and natural philosophy. She continued to study at the University, and in 1925 received a BSc with Special Distinction in chemistry, physics and mathematics. She joined the

Edinburgh Mathematical Society The Edinburgh Mathematical Society is a mathematical society for academics in Scotland. History The Society was founded in 1883 by a group of Edinburgh school teachers and academics, on the initiative of Alexander Yule Fraser FRSE and Andrew Je ...

soon after. She changed fields to study chemistry and earned her PhD in 1928. Steele was a

Commonwealth Fellow The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries. History The plan was originally proposed ...

, where she travelled to the United States to continue her research at

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

for two years and then at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Professional life

Steele taught at the Ladies' Branch of the Horticultural College,

Swanley Swanley is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2011 census was 16,226. History I ...

, Kent (later the

Swanley Horticultural College Swanley Horticultural College, founded in , was a college of horticulture in Hextable, Kent, England. It originally took only male students but by 1894 the majority of students were female and it became a women-only institution in 1903. Early hi ...

) in the 1930s where many middle-class women learned

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

. She later returned to the USA. Her book ''An Introduction to Plant Biochemistry'' was first published in 1934, with a second edition released in 1949. The book aims to assist botany students with no training in organic chemistry for studies of plant biochemistry. Steele wrote the book following support from Professor John Read with whom she collaborated on books such as ''Researches in the Methane Series Part VI'' and ''Part VII'' and ''The Optically Active Diphenylhydroxyethylamines and isoHydrobenzoins''.

Personal life

Steele married Louis Hamilton Bock in 1934. Together they had two sons.Birth Announcements. ''The Scotsman''. October 20, 1939 and February 27, 1942. Steele died on 3 December 3, 1995 in

Lacey, Washington Lacey is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. It is a suburb of Olympia with a population of 53,526 at the 2020 census. Lacey is located along Interstate 5 between Olympia and the Nisqually River, which marks the border with ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Catherine Scottish biochemists Scottish women scientists 1903 births 1995 deaths People educated at Waid Academy Alumni of the University of St Andrews University of Illinois alumni 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century Scottish scientists 20th-century Scottish women

Early life and education

Professional life

Personal life

See also

References