Dr. June Almaeda

Environmental & Science Education
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Nature of Science
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Edward Hessler

Meet June Almeida, who was the discover of the first coronavirus (1964). Coronaviruses as you likely know have a crown-like appearance.

She left school with very little formal education. Her first real job was as a "laboratory technician in histopathology at Glasgow Royal University." Then now to London, marriage, and then to Toronto where she "developed her outstanding skills with an electron microscope." Her skills became widely known and in 1964 "she was lured back... to work at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London."

She received her doctorate "at the Postgraduate Medical School in London," where she was also employed. Upon retirement she was certifioed as a Yoga instructor and trained in trained in China restoration, eventually becoming a consultant at St. Thomas in electron microscopy.

She died in 2007, at the age of 77.

Read Stephen Brocklelhurst's story on the BBC. The Wiki entry provides many more details about her. And here is the British Medical Journal's tribute to her.