2022/11/02 by Jon Agar · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Historical Economic and Social Studies
paper · doi:10.1098/rsbm.2022.0036
openalex publication_date 2022/11/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
A politician of global stature in the late twentieth century, Margaret Thatcher (née Roberts) studied chemistry at Oxford University during World War II and worked as an industrial scientist in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Entering Parliament in 1959, she served as Secretary of State for Education and Science under Edward Heath in the early 1970s. In 1979 she became not only the UK's first female Prime Minister but also the first with such a scientific background. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1983, under Statute 12, she oversaw significant changes in science policy and her administration faced many major political issues that depended on scientific advice, notably the AIDS crisis, biomedical uses of human embryos, decisions over civil and military nuclear projects, acid rain, and climate change.