Mary Winifred Betts Aitken
Mary Winifred Betts Aitken, was a New Zealand botanist and the first female lecturer at the University of Otago, N.Z.
Known to friends as "Winnie," she studied at the Nelson College for Girls and received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the University of Otago. On her graduation, she received the National Research Scholarship that was awarded at the university each year, which offered her an income of £100 a year, plus lab expenses, so she could conduct independent research.
She was appointed university lecturer in botany in 1920 at age 25, the first woman to earn that designation. She was described by the preeminent botanist Leonard Cockayne as “the most brilliant woman scientist in New Zealand.”
In that same year, she married another Otago graduate, the mathematician Alexander Aitken, and the couple remained in New Zealand as Winnie Aitken continued her botany lectures until 1923.
In December 1923, the couple moved to Scotland so her husband could pursue his academic career.
