Mary Fauriel (Mary) Lockett

Mary Fauriel Lockett (17 March 1911 – 5 January 1982) was an English-born Australian pharmacologist, radiologist, missionary and educator. She was Head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Chelsea College of Science and Technology (1951–1962), taught at other British universities, and was the first female professor at the University of Western Australia. She identified a previously unknown steroid in cholesterol associated with cardiovascular disease.

Biography Lockett was born on 17 March 1911 in Weaste, Salford, Manchester, England. Her parents were vicar of Holy Innocents Church, Fallowfield, Harry Duncan Lockett and his wife Mary Lockett .

Lockett was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, then studied a bachelor's degrees in medicine and science and a doctorate in medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women and the University of London. After graduating as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1936, she was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in 1937. She returned to England in 1940, suffering from dengue fever, amoebic dysentery and hypoplastic anaemia. which enabled her to study a PhD in pharmacology at Newnham College, Cambridge, from 1944 to 1946. Her thesis was an account of two bases which were obtained from urine and which, when injected intravenously, raised the blood pressure of cats. Following her PhD, Lockett lectured at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She identified a previously unknown steroid in cholesterol associated with cardiovascular disease. She collaborated with colleagues in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). She died on 5 January 1982 in Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia, Australia, aged 70.

Archives related to Lockett are held at the archives of the University of Western Australia.