Cecily Littleton

Scottish crystallographer and horticulturalist (1926–2022)

Cecily Darwin Littleton

Born| (1926-11-15)15 November 1926

Edinburgh, Scotland

Died| 14 April 2022(2022-04-14) (aged 95)
Spouse| John Littleton (died 2009)
Children| 4
Parent(s)| Charles Galton Darwin
Katharine Pember
Scientific career
Institutions| Haverford College
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Academic advisors| Dorothy Hodgkin

Cecily Darwin Littleton (15 November 1926 – 14 April 2022) was a British X-ray crystallographer and horticulturalist. She worked alongside Dorothy Hodgkin on the identification of the crystal structure of biomolecules.

## Early life and education

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Littleton was born in Edinburgh. She was the great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Her father was Charles Galton Darwin and her mother was a mathematician, Katharine Pember Darwin.[1] Her father worked on atomic theory and X-ray diffraction, and was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family. She attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied chemistry and graduated in 1949.[2] At Oxford, she worked alongside Dorothy Hodgkin.[3][4] Together they worked on the structure of biomolecules, including nitrosobenzenes.

## Research and career

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Littleton moved to Philadelphia and worked alongside Arthur Lindo Patterson at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. She developed the statistical analysis techniques to model crystal structures.[5] She also worked at Haverford College, where she studied stellar evolution.[6]

Like her great-grandfather, Littleton travelled to the Galápagos Islands.[7] In 1989, she donated a chair belonging to Charles Darwin to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.[8][9]

## Selected publications

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* Littleton, C. D. (10 October 1953). "A structure determination of the gluconate ion". Acta Crystallographica. 6 (10): 775–781. doi:10.1107/s0365110x53002209. ISSN 0365-110X.
* DARWIN, CECILY; HODGKIN, DOROTHY CROWFOOT (November 1950). "Crystal Structure of the Dimer of para-Bromonitrosobenzene". Nature. 166 (4228): 827–828. Bibcode:1950Natur.166..827D. doi:10.1038/166827a0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 14780278. S2CID 4222657.

## Personal life

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Littleton met musician John Littleton, who would later become her husband,[10] at a New Year's Eve party. Together they had four children. He died in 2009.[11] She trained in horticulture in the 1980s.[7] Littleton died on 14 April 2022, of a cardiac arrest.[7]

## References

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1. ^ "The Darwin Dynasty". Retrieved 27 December 2022.
2. ^ "Somervillians to be commemorated on 11 June 2022" (PDF). 2022.
3. ^ Ferry, Georgina (7 January 2020). Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin : patterns, proteins and peace : a life in science. ISBN 978-1-4482-1760-1. OCLC 1112373886.
4. ^ "Dorothy Hodgkin and the Year of Crystallography". the Guardian. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
5. ^ Obituaries, Telegraph (30 May 2022). "Cecily Littleton, Darwin's great-granddaughter who also became a successful scientist – obituary". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
6. ^ "Haverford College Bulletin, New Series, 64-67, 1965-1968". Haverford College. 1968.
7. ^ a b c Miles, Gary. "Cecily Littleton, scientist, horticulturalist, and great-granddaughter of naturalist Charles Darwin, has died at 95". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
8. ^ "Darwin's Chair - The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University". ansp.org. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
9. ^ Belardo, Carolyn. "Maybe Darwin Sat Here". The Academy of Natural Sciences. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
10. ^ "MISS CECILY DARWIN A PROSPECTIVE BRIDE". The New York Times. 18 November 1950. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
11. ^ Yumpu.com. "Somerville College Report 09|10 - University of Oxford". yumpu.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.