Mentoring: Building networks of support
Lynne Reid and Elizabeth Hay trained and mentored hundreds of junior scientists over their course of their careers, forming many lifelong friendships and networks of support. These important connections are revealed in their collections through correspondence, interviews, and other materials; here are just a few examples. Hay and Reid’s roles as mentors were perhaps particularly meaningful for junior women, as there were so few senior female role models at Harvard at that time.
In a 1988 letter (see right) Paul Davies writes to Lynne Reid "This is a good time to add my appreciation for your help and advise [sic] over the years… the most important lessons were not the content matter of papers and chapters, they were broader--that there is no substitute for vigorous thinking; that ideas must be examined again and again. If I can muster a fraction of your tenacious attention to detail, I will count myself as doing very well indeed."