Dame Margaret Blackwood - first female Australian Deputy Chancellor
Margaret Blackwood (1909 - 1986) graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BSc in 1938 and MSc in 1940. During the Second World War she served with the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force and then was granted an ex-service postgraduate scholarship to Cambridge, where she gained a PhD for her work in plant genetics. In 1951 she became a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne, a position she held until 1974 when she was elected a member of the University Council. She was appointed as a Member of the British Empire in 1964 for her work in botany. In 1980 she became Australia's first female Deputy Chancellor and was appointed a Dame for her services to education. She retired in 1983 and died three years later. She was chair of the Council of Janet Clarke Hall, and was elected the first female Fellow of Trinity College in 1982.
She is one of the six eminent men and women honoured with a bronze "Gargoyle" sculpture on the eastern side of the Evan Burge Building.