Emily Aston

When William Ramsay had been at Bristol College, he had had a woman research student, Katherine Williams (see Chap. 5). 

Upon his arrival at UCL, he acquired another woman assistant, Emily Alicia Aston.7 Aston was born in 1866, and between 1883 and 1885 she studied at both Queen s College, Harley Street (see Chap. 4), and Bedford College (see Chap. 4). Her first research was undertaken with Spencer Pickering8 at Bedford College. She then spent a total of 14 years at UCL, receiving her B.Sc. in chemistry and geology in 1889. During her sojourn at UCL, she authored or co-authored a total of 12 publications, mostly with Ramsay. 

Aston s versatility was remarkable, for she authored papers on topics in mineralogy, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and physical chemistry. In Morris Travers s biography of Ramsay, it is noted that  

Ramsay carried out further experimental investigations in the same direction with John Shields and with Miss Emily Aston, and made attempts to deduce from the results the degree of complexity of associating liquids.9 

In the late 1890s, Aston spent some time at the Sorbonne in Paris where she worked with Paul Dutoit on electrolytic conductivity and molecular association, resulting in two publications. Then, she undertook research with Philippe Auguste Guye at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, on optical rotation. Four publications resulted from her work in Geneva. 

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Ramsay and Mina Emily Aston, Trana. Chem. Soe., 1893, 63, 211. 

Compare Dutoit and Miss Emily Aston, Compt. rend., 1897, 125, 240. 

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