LGBT+ History Month 2026: 5 Queer Scientists and Innovators Worth Knowing About

Elke Mackenzie, born Ivan, was a British botanist and polar explorer who specialised in lichenology. 

After a decade in charge of the British Natural History Museum’s lichen herbarium, she joined Operation Tabarin, a World War II mission to Antarctica and the Falkland Islands. Here, she identified lichen species, many completely unknown. Her legacy lives on in the names of two genera and several species, and polar medals from the UK and the USA.

In the early 1970s, Mackenzie underwent a sex reassignment surgery, renaming herself Elke. Despite facing institutional prejudice as a transgender woman, Elke was elected an honorary member of the British Lichen Society in 1974. As she should be.

Dr Barbara Burford was a medical researcher and lifelong equality and diversity activist whose work helped embed these principles in major public institutions, especially the NHS.

Alongside her scientific career contributing to breakthroughs in heart and lung transplant surgery for children, Burford challenged discrimination and pushed for systemic change across the NHS. Her legacy is as much in the queer community as it is in Black British history.

Burford met her partner, Joy Howard, in the late 80s. They remained together in a sapphic civil partnership until Burford died in 2010.

Charles Beyer was a locomotive designer and builder, and also one of the founders of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

Born and educated in Germany, Beyer later relocated to Manchester and designed cotton-spinning machinery. Despite facing prejudice for being German, within ten years, he had become a Chief Designer of locomotives. He co-founded the IMechE after being unable to join the Institute of Civil Engineers before he became a naturalised British citizen.

Beyer met Swedish engineer Gustav Theodor Stieler, his self-described "soulmate," in the mid 1850s. Intimate letters between the two men survive at the Swedish Railway Museum for visitors to read.

Jemma Redmond was an Irish pioneer and innovator in biotechnology who developed 3D bioprinters to create tissues and organs.

After she realised her identity as intersex made her infertile, she dedicated herself to creating functional reproductive organs to address the shortage on the transplant organ list. Her 3D bioprinting start-up, Ourobotics, was the first in the world to use up to ten biomaterials at once, allowing her to create complex tissues like blood vessels.

It was Redmond’s wish that all healthcare facilities could access 3D printing technology, particularly for those on the transplant organ list. Her former partner, journalist and activist Kay Cairns, wrote a few words about Redmond’s life and legacy after she died.