Margaret Baird
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1945
Margaret Baird | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Baird in 2011 | |
| Born | Margaret Alison McIntyre 1945 Wellington, New Zealand |
| Died | (aged 71) Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Alma mater | University of Otago |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Otago |
| Thesis | Survival of syngeneic and allogeneic erythrocytes in rats (1983) |
Margaret Alison Baird (née McIntyre; 1945 – 19 September 2016) was a New Zealand immunologist. She was a full professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago. Her research considered dendritic cells and their role in cancer and infectious disease.
Baird was the daughter of Hazel and Alan McIntyre,[1] and grew up in Tauranga, a small town that is on the North Island of New Zealand.[2] She attended the University of Otago, where she studied zoology and graduated in 1967.[2] After graduating, Baird worked as a high school teacher, teaching biology at St Hilda's Collegiate School.[3] She developed debating and drama programs for the school students. Her husband joined the King George VI School in Honiara in 1970, and soon after Baird followed to teach science and art.[3] In 1972 she returned to New Zealand, where she worked as a Speech and Drama teacher.[2] Baird became interested in microbiology and enrolled on a postgraduate course in immunology at the University of Otago. She was the only woman and oldest person on the course.[3] She eventually started a doctoral degree in transplant immunology, working with Barbara Heslop at the University of Otago. In 1984 she earned her PhD, and later that year coordinated an important immunology meeting in Queenstown. The 1985 meeting would lead to the formation of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Immunology.[2]