Audrey Smith

Audrey Ursula Smith (21 May 1915 – 3 June 1981) was a British cryobiologist, who discovered the use of glycerol to protect human red blood cells during freezing.

Early life and education Audrey Smith was born in India on 21 May 1915, and baptized at Chhindwara, India, one of two children of Alan Kenyon Smith, who worked for the Indian Civil Service, and his wife, Gertrude May Smith.

In 1935, she graduated from King's College, London with a first class honours BSc in general science, and in 1936, with a BSc from Bedford College for Women in physiology, again with first class honours.

Career Smith was house physician at King's College Hospital, in 1942, and clinical pathologist from 1943 to 1944. She was a pathologist at Epsom public health clinic from 1944 to 1945, and for the Nottingham Emergency Public Health Laboratory Service from 1945 to 1946. Parkes thought that Smith and Polge should also have been included in his award of the Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh, but "the University authorities thought otherwise". Audrey Smith was awarded the Kamerlingh Onnes medal in 1973.

She was on the staff of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore, from 1970 to 1981.

Death and legacy Smith died in London on 3 June 1981.

According to her obituary in The New York Times, "her work in the development of techniques to protect frozen sperm cells from bulls has been credited with contributing to major advances in cattle breeding and animal husbandry".

Publications

Polge, C.; A. Smith, and A. Parkes. "Revival of spermatozoa after vitrification and dehydration." Nature (London), 164:666, 1949. Smith, A. U. "Prevention of Haemolysis during Freezing and Thawing of Red Blood Cells." Lancet 2 (1950):910–911.

Smith, A. U. Biological Effects of Freezing and Supercooling, Williams and Wilkinns, London, 1961. Pegg, D. E. "The history and principles of cryopreservation." Semin Reprod Med, 20(1):5–13, 2002.