Tilli Tansey


Elizabeth M. Tansey is an Emerita Professor of the history of medicine and former neurochemist, best known for her role in the Wellcome Trust's witness seminars. She previously worked at Queen Mary University of London.

Education

Tansley was educated at the University of Sheffield where she was awarded a PhD in 1978 for histochemical studies of the brain in cephalopods. After switching fields from neuroscience to the history of science, she was awarded a second PhD in the history of science for her research on the early career of the nobel laureate Henry Hallett Dale.

Career and research

Between 2012 and 2017, she was head of the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, on a five-year research project funded by the Wellcome Trust titled The Makers of Modern Biomedicine: Testimonies and Legacy, to record oral testimonies from those who have contributed significantly to modern medical sciences.
Tansey's Witness Seminar series, held at the Wellcome Trust Centre, had the aim of bringing together medical professionals, scientists and technicians in group discussions, with the purpose of learning about significant periods in the history recent medicine. Topics covered have included oral contraceptives, genetic testing, and post-penicillin antibiotics.

Selected publications

Tansey is an honorary member of The Physiological Society. In 2015, at the centenary of women's membership of the Physiological Society, Tansey received the Paton prize and presented her prize lecture entitled Maude, Nettie, Ghetel and George, a study of some women married to early nineteenth century Physiological Society members.
In 2017 she was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.