Mary Jessie MacDonald Noble

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FIB (23 February 1911 – 20 July 2002) was a seed pathologist for the Department of Agriculture for Scotland and was key in producing the ''Handbook of Seed-borne Diseases''.

Life

She was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

the daughter of John Noble a pharmacist on Gladstone Place on

Leith Links Leith Links ( gd, Fìghdean Lìte) is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat ...

. The family lived at 37 Willowbrae Road. She was educated privately at the Mary Erskine School and went on to study botany at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

from 1920 to 1935, under Dr Malcolm Wilson, where she earned an honours degree in botany. She then earned a PhD on the mycological aspects of seed pathology. After university, she joined the plant pathology service of the Board of Agriculture (now known as SASA) based in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. In Noble's career on plant pathology, seeds were her main focus. In 1958 she was elected as Fellow of the

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(one of the few female Fellows). Her proposers were Malcolm Wilson, Charles Edward Foister, John Anthony and Sir William Wright Smith. She won the Society's Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize. As well as becoming a Fellow, she also served as a councillor for British Mycological Society and the

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. She was also a member of the International Seed Testing Association and, along with Dr Paul Neergaard and Dr Jo deTempe, produced an ''Annotated List of Seed-borne Diseases (4th edition, ISTA , 1990).'' In 1971, she retired as principal scientific officer for seed pathology and mycology at the Agriculture Scientific Society for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland. Noble retired in 1971 and died on 20 July 2002 in

Lasswade Lasswade is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River North Esk, nine miles (14.5 kilometres) south of Edinburgh city centre, contiguous with Bonnyrigg and between Dalkeith to the east and Loanhead to the west. Melville C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, Mary Jessie MacDonald 1911 births 2002 deaths People educated at the Mary Erskine School Scottish biologists British women biologists Scientists from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Companions of the Imperial Service Order 20th-century biologists