Born: 20 October 1929, United Kingdom
Died: 8 April 2021
Country most active: New Zealand
Also known as: Mary Earle
The following was written by Nina Baker and is excerpted from the book From Alchemy to Transport Phenomena: A Global History of Women in Chemical Engineering.
Mary Davidson Cameron (Mrs Earle) OBE, BSc, PhD (1929-2021) was born near Fort William in the Scottish highlands, where her father was a stationmaster. After her school education in Fort William and then Glasgow, she got a BSc Hons degree in applied science from the Royal Technical College Glasgow (1951). Applied science included technical chemistry, heat engineering, electrical engineering and engineering drawing. Her PhD on the purification of soya lipoxidae, was supervised by the professor of biochemistry, R.A.Morton. On her emigration to New Zealand/Aotearoa, her first job was with the Meat Industry Research Institute and then the Food Technology Department (1965), within Massey University’s engineering faculty. From then on she was considered to be an engineer and is believed to have been New Zealand/Aotearoa’s first female engineering academic. She later helped set up the Food Technology Research Centre, an academia/industry knowledge exchange centre. In 1993 her personal chair made her the first woman at Massey to be awarded one. Her work was recognised with a number of honorary fellowships, including from Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand (IPENZ). She is recognised as a chemical engineer although never a member of the professional institution, due to her lifetime in the technical and engineering side of food product development. She was awarded the Massey Medal and the OBE (1993).