Margrét Guðnadóttir

Margrét Guðmunda Guðnadóttir (7 July 1929 – 2 January 2018) was an Icelandic doctor and virologist She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Iceland.

Career Margrét completed her matriculation examination from the mathematics department at Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in the spring of 1949. In the autumn, she enrolled as a medical student at the University of Iceland and graduated in the spring of 1956. During the summers of 1954 and 1955, she worked at the Keldur Institute for Experimental Pathology, researching pneumonia and the spread of the influenza epidemic.

In the summer of 1957, Margrét went to the UK and the US under the auspices of Keldur to pursue a six-month specialist study programme There she conducted research into polio and the diagnosis of viral diseases in humans. From 1960 to 1969, Margrét worked as a specialist in virology at the Keldur Institute for Experimental Pathology, where she researched the visna-maedi virus and various human diseases. In 1969 she became a professor of medical microbiology at the University of Iceland Faculty of Medicine, At this time, there were no female assistant professors or associate professors, but about nine women were employed as sessional teachers. Margrét worked as a professor for 30 years, until reaching retirement age in 1999. In 1974, Margrét established the University Research Institute in Virology at the Landspítali University Hospital, serving as director until 1994. for her contribution to virology and the diagnosis of viral diseases.

Margrét's research focused on slow virus diseases in sheep, the nature of visna-maedi infections and a vaccination for this disease. She wrote many papers which were published in Icelandic and international outlets.