Leslie Barnett insisted that she took up the offer of a place at Reading University and she remembered these as some of the happiest days of her life, studying for her BSc in dairying.
14 Facts About Leslie Barnett
1.
2.
Leslie Barnett continued to be fond of James despite their divorce when the children were quite young.
3.
Leslie Barnett came to work as a technician in the MRC Unit shortly before the move from the Cavendish Laboratory to "The Hut" in Cambridge, which would later go on to become the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
4.
Leslie Barnett's role was to help with the computing for the crystallographers.
5.
Leslie Barnett worked with Vernon Ingram in determining the GLU to VAL amino acid change in the beta chain of Hb responsible for the sickle cell phenotype; this was the first molecular disease characterized.
6.
Leslie Barnett showed her versatility when she transferred to Brenner's programme and made a major contribution to the laboratory work, becoming a co-author of their two major papers on the results.
7.
On Brenner's retirement in 1986, Leslie Barnett left the LMB to work for him in the new MRC Molecular Genetics Unit in Addenbrooke's Hospital.
8.
Leslie Barnett trained the late Francis Crick in experimental work on phage and assisted him.
9.
Leslie Barnett helped set up Sydney Brenner's laboratory in Singapore, many years later.
10.
Leslie Barnett was amongst the early Fellows elected to join Clare Hall, the newly founded graduate college.
11.
Leslie Barnett played a leading role in college affairs, particularly in the organising of social events and parties and will be remembered with great affection by her colleagues and other friends associated with the college.
12.
Professionally, to which I am sure Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner will attest, many of the seminal discoveries in molecular biology would not have occurred without the careful hand, watchful eye and steadfast focus that Leslie Barnett brought to the bench and experiments.
13.
Leslie Barnett was invaluable, as she was always such a careful and meticulous experimentalist.
14.
In 1978 at Clare Hall a second neighbouring house in Cambridge, now called Leslie Barnett House, was obtained for graduate student accommodation; it was named after the popular Senior Tutor.