After graduating she worked with Nobel prize Winner William H. Bragg at University College London, and later at The Royal Institution, London. Her life’s work was in studying the structure of chemicals and X-Ray crystallography. She had a profound influence on the development of this technique, as well as other fields in chemistry and physics.

She confirmed experimentally the structure of benzene in 1929.

In 1956 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, despite the fact that she had spent some time in Holloway prison in 1943 after refusing to register for civil defence duties during World War II and refusing to pay the subsequent 2 pound fine.

She achieved a number of other remarkable things during her lifetime – in 1945 she was the first woman, along with microbiologist Marjory Stephenson, to be elected Fellow of The Royal Society (London).

She was also the first female professor of University College, London, and, in 1967, became the first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). She was one of the founders of the Young Scientists’ section of the BA, and made the following note to herself: “Never refuse an opportunity to speak at schools.”

In her honour, a rare meteoric diamond has been named Lonsdaleite.