Dora Richardson

Dora Nellie Richardson (1919-1998) was an organic chemist who first synthesised Tamoxifen in England in 1962.^[1] She was born on 1 June 1919 and died in September 1998 in England.^[2]

Richardson decided to become a chemist after seeing people working in hospital laboratories while visiting her grandmother in hospital in London. She earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from University College London in 1941, and a PhD in 1953.^[1] Her dissertation in organic chemistry was on the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds.^[3]

Richardson began her career at Imperial Chemical Industries in 1943, working there until her retirement.^[1] In the early 1960s, she worked on synthesising compounds, and separated the geometric isomers of a triphenylethylene, which developed the basis for Tamoxifen.^[4][5] In 1970, she and Arthur Walpole were investigating potential uses of Tamoxifen, and they discovered that it was effective in reducing estrogen receptor positive tumors.^[6] In a 1970 clinical trial, tamoxifen, which went by the name Nolvadex, was given to 60 breast cancer patients. This anti-estrogen drug had significantly shrunk the tumors while causing minimal side effects.^[6] In 1988, she published an article on the history of the development of Tamoxifen.^[7]

Richardson was named on several patents.^[8]