Nancy Lane Perham

Nancy Jane Lane Perham ( Lane; 1936 – 23 November 2025) was a Canadian cell biologist and artist, and a full professor at the University of Cambridge who specialised in cell–cell interaction. Lane Perham was an advocate for women in science, chairing the Working Party on Women in SET that produced The Rising Tide report, and co-founding a university accreditation scheme, the Athena Project.

Early life and education Nancy Jane Lane was born in 1936 to journalist Frances (née Gilbert) and Temple Lane, a civil servant, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She undertook her undergraduate degree and a Masters of Science at Dalhousie University.

After she graduated, she was awarded the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire scholarship, and won the Governor General's Gold Medal, which allowed her to undertake her doctoral study at the University of Oxford.

Academic career After post-doctoral positions at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Yale University, Lane Perham joined the faculty of the University of Cambridge in 1968, rising to full professor. She was described as a "brilliant microscopist". Her research focused on cell–cell interaction and cell junctions, Besides studying cell structures and interactions, she also painted them. Some of her works appeared on journal covers and some were selected by David Hockney to appear in the Royal Academy of Art's 1995 Summer Exhibition. The working party produced the 1993 report The Rising Tide. Lane Perham co-founded the Athena Project, and was founder of WiSETI, a Cambridge initiative to advance women in science, technology and engineering. She died on 23 November 2025, at the age of 89.

Honours and awards Nancy Lane Perham was a Life Fellow of Girton College at Cambridge.

She held honorary doctorates from six universities, including from the University of Surrey in 2005. She was inducted into the Nova Scotia Science Hall of Fame in 2006.

Selected works