Margaret Brimble

Dame Margaret Anne Brimble ( MacMillan; born 20 August 1961) is a New Zealand chemist. Her research has included investigations of shellfish toxins and means to treat brain injuries.

Early life, family, and education Brimble was born in Auckland on 20 August 1961, the daughter of Mary Anne MacMillan (née Williamson) and Herbert MacMillan, and was encouraged by her grandmother to value education. She attended Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland from 1972 to 1978, and was dux in her final year.

She went on to study chemistry at the University of Auckland from 1979 to 1983, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1982 and Master of Science with first-class honours in 1983.

Career and research Brimble holds the chair of organic and medicinal chemistry at the University of Auckland and is also a principal investigator in the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery.

Awards and honours She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Brimble was the first New Zealander to receive the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, and the second woman to receive the Rutherford medal.

Brimble was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science in the 2004 New Year Honours. In the 2012 New Year Honours, she was promoted to Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, also for services to science. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. In the 2019 New Year Honours, she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to science.

In 2014, Brimble received the Science and Innovation Award at the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.

In 2017, Brimble was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.

In 2023, Brimble received the Ernest Guenther Award in Chemistry of Natural Products

Personal life In 1981, she married Mark Timothy Brimble.