Barbara Heslop

Barbara Farnsworth Heslop (née Cupit, 26 January 1925 – 20 December 2013) was a New Zealand immunologist specialising in transplantation immunology and immunogenetics.

Born in Auckland, Heslop was educated at Epsom Girls' Grammar School from 1938 to 1941 and then attended the University of Otago, graduating MB ChB in 1949 and MD in 1954.

She married surgeon John Herbert Heslop, noted for his work on skin carcinogenesis.

They had two daughters: Helen, a transplant scientist; and Hilary, a food specialist.

Heslop gained recognition in the medical community for both her research and her teaching, at a time when women scientists were scarce.

She was made a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) for services to surgical sciences in 1975.

In 1990, in honour of her research achievements she was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand mainly based on her publications on allogeneic lymphocyte cytotoxicity (a natural killer cell mediated phenomenon).

The same year, she and her husband John Heslop were joint recipients of the Sir Louis Barnett Medal awarded by the RACS.

In the 1991 New Year Honours, Heslop was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to medical education.

To commemorate Heslop's work and that of her husband, John Heslop, the Heslop Medal was established by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2004 to recognise and reward outstanding contributions to the Board of Basic Surgical Education and Training and its committees.

Heslop died in Dunedin in 2013.

In 2017, Heslop was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.