Exhibition about scientist Kathleen Lonsdale for Riverbank

An installation based on the life of Newbridge-born scientist Kathleen Lonsdale will open in the Riverbank Arts Centre Newbridge on Saturday, writes Brian Byrne.

The official opening of the presentation by artist Maeve Clancy is at 2pm. The artist has provided an immersive cut paper experience to show the scientist's life alongside drawings, lighting and animation.

Kathleen Lonsdale, born Kathleen Yardley in 1903 in Newbridge, became an eminent X-ray crystallography expert, achieving a number of knowledge firsts in her research. She was one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1945, the first woman tenured professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. She was also a committed pacifist and a prison reform activist. She died in 1971.

Her home up to the age of five in Charlotte Street, Newbridge, has recently been refurbished and opened as a Business Centre.

Maeve Clancy, who also works in theatre and TV set design, has created a graphic novel about Kathleen Lonsdale, which will be available free from the Riverbank Arts Centre and the Kildare Library Service.

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