Mary Constance Cecile Lobban (1922–1982) was a British physiologist who studied circadian rhythms. Lobban was a Senior Demonstrator in Physiology in the Physiological Laboratory at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

from 1955 to 1959. From 1959 to 1974 she worked at the

National Institute for Medical Research The National Institute for Medical Research (commonly abbreviated to NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC); In 2016, the NIMR b ...

's Hampstead laboratories. During the Cambridge Physiological Expeditions of the 1950s, Lobban conducted research into the sleep rhythms of volunteers in Spitsbergen,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, where the sun does not set during the summer months. Volunteers were separated into two groups and given wristwatches that were set to either 21- or 27-hour days. She later studied the renal circadian rhythms of people living in the Arctic and near the Equator. At the

Victoria General Hospital Victoria General Hospital (VGH) is an acute care facility located in View Royal, British Columbia, Canada, a western suburb of Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victo ...

in Halifax, she studied the effects of nurses changing their schedules from 8-hour to 12-hour shifts. In 1978, she became a Professor of Environmental Physiology at Memorial University of Newfoundland where she taught nephrology and human physiology. After suffering a stroke in May 1981, Lobban's health declined. She died on 14 June 1982 in Newfoundland. The

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; french: links=no, Garde côtière canadienne, GCC) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues ...

scattered her ashes in the Canadian high Arctic.

Publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lobban, Mary C 1922 births 1982 deaths Academics of the University of Cambridge British physiologists Women physiologists Academic staff of the Memorial University of Newfoundland National Institute for Medical Research faculty 20th-century British women scientists British expatriates in Canada