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Members of the College community gathered at a memorial service to celebrate the life of Professor Ruth Lynden-Bell FRS, chemist and Honorary Fellow of ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï, who died in April aged 88.

The service on Friday 16 October was held at St Edward's Church, Cambridge, followed by a reception in College.

Tributes given at the service reflected three important facets of Ruth’s long and productive life. Marion Eastmond, Ruth's daughter, gave a family perspective on her career and life as a wife, mother and grandmother, while Ali Alavi, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge, reflected on her scientific achievements, the greatness of her mind, and her exceptional gifts as a teacher of advanced students.

College Acting President Dr Rachel Polonsky remembered Ruth as a longstanding Fellow of the College, including her service as Vice President and as Acting President from 2011 to 2013.

When Ruth joined New Hall as a Fellow and College Lecturer in 1962, the College was not yet ten years old and was still in its first home on Silver Street. She was twenty-four, newly married to Donald Lynden-Bell, a theoretical astrophysicist, and had just completed her doctorate in Chemistry having studied Natural Sciences as an undergraduate at Newnham. Dr Polonsky said: ‘She was one of the women who made this College in its earliest days. She never stopped making it and she is making it still.’

Alongside her internationally recognised academic achievements, Ruth was a courageous and longstanding champion of flexibility for women in science to enable a balance between career and home life. 

Dr Polonsky said: ‘Ruth was a vanguard model of how a woman can keep the life of the mind and an academic vocation threaded together - through travels and motherhood with determination and fidelity of purpose. When her children were young, at a time when such a thing was almost unheard of, she asked the new University of Sussex for a part-time post and got it.

‘When the family returned to Cambridge in 1972, New Hall arranged her teaching so that her mornings were free for research - exactly the kind of flexibility this College was founded to make possible. Her advice to younger women was beautifully direct: don't be afraid to ask, and when an opportunity arises, take it.’

For more than six decades, Ruth brought her high academic standards and determined efforts to follow the right path to the service of the College. She would often dine at High Table, ‘which she enjoyed and with her mere presence raised to what it should be: a place of good conversation and simple friendship, worthy of a college.’

Professor Alavi praised the ‘inspiring role’ Ruth played as a trailblazer and scientific leader in chemistry and the physical sciences. A distinguished theoretical chemist, she worked on wide-ranging topics, from NMR spectroscopy to computer simulations of molecular liquids and solids. A long-time member of Cambridge’s Theoretical Chemistry department (from 1972 to 1995), Fellow of New Hall/ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï and College Lecturer at St John’s College, she moved in 1995 to Queen’s University of Belfast to the newly created Chair of Atomistic Simulation. There she steered a highly successful, inclusive and interdisciplinary group spanning three departments - Applied Maths (where she taught), Physics and Chemistry - as well as herself performing pioneering simulations of ionic liquids. ‘Ruth’s natural, unforced style of leadership meant that she was universally loved and admired by all that came into her orbit.’

As a female academic, Ruth was not offered the opportunities afforded to male colleagues, including the chance to supervise more than a handful of PhD students, Professor Alavi said. ‘If only she had been given the opportunity, many others in Cambridge could have similarly benefited. But in those days, female academics in senior positions in Chemistry were almost unheard of. Ruth’s powerful example of how to lead in science did a huge amount to change perceptions. Her legacy is therefore two-fold: a brilliant theoretical chemist, as well as a trail blazer who paved the way towards gender equality in the subject. In this respect, things have changed for the better, in no small part because of the example Ruth set.’

Ruth’s daughter Marion Eastmond spoke movingly of Ruth’s closeness to Donald, supporting each other’s work, travelling the world together, gardening and enjoying country walks. ‘Late in life, when Ruth was old and distinguished, an interviewer asked what advice she had for young women scientists. Ruth said three things: marry the right person, don’t be afraid to ask for what you want and never iron anything.

‘The ‘right person’ for her was my father, Donald Lynden-Bell. They met in Ruth’s third year at Newnham, and his love and admiration for her lasted until the end of his life - one of the last things he did was to organise a party of friends for her 80th birthday. In his wedding speech Donald compared their minds. Ruth’s he said, was like fish bones, beautifully and logically laid out. His own was like wire wool, a tangled mass sparking unexpected connections. He had a deep respect for her scientific ability. In an era when most women gave up work when they had children, Donald wholeheartedly supported her continuing her career.’

In 2024, ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï inaugurated the Ruth Lynden-Bell Lecture in her honour.

• An obituary of Ruth written by Fellow Emeritus Dr Owen Saxton can be found in the forthcoming issue of the College magazine, Dolphin.