New £ 50 note scientist nominations released

The Bank of England has been nominated to feature on the new 50 note.

Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace, phone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and astronomer Patrick Moore.

The Bank received 174,112 appointments, of which 114,000 met the eligibility criteria.

To be on the list, the individual must be real, deceased and have contributed to the field of science in the UK.

The list, which includes more than 600 men and almost 200 women, includes black holes expert Stephen Hawking, penicillin discoverer Alexander Fleming, father of modern epidemiology John Snow, naturalist and zookeeper Gerald Durrell, fossil pioneer Mary Anning, British-Jamaican business woman and Mary Seacole and Margaret Thatcher, who was a scientist before becoming prime minister.

The late Baroness Thatcher studied chemistry at Oxford University and after graduating joined British Xylonite Plastics in 1947. Two years later she joined J. Lyons & Co. in Hammersmith, west London, as a food research scientist in a role that involved testing the quality of cake -fillings and ice-cream, wrote biographer Hugo Young.

The politician has been credited with inventing a soft serve ice cream – a product that has been made available to the public by the Royal Society journal article.

Shortlist

Bookmakers William Hill have Stephen Hawking as the current favorite, with odds of 7/4, followed by Nobel-prize winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin 4/1.

Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing and Alexander Fleming have odds of 5/1 and Rosalind Franklin, who made important contributions to the understanding of DNA, is at 6/1.

Further names will be considered until nominations close on 14 December.

After that the decision will be considered by the Bank's Banknote Character Advisory Committee.

Analysis:

Paul Rincon, BBC News science editor

The definition of eligibility for this list is quite broad, but the criteria are likely to be applied to the Bank's Committee.

Thus, while Margaret Thatcher's contributions to politics are significant, it remains to be determined by the Committee of the Scientific Committee.

Hers is just one of the names that some observers will think about some of the definitions of a scientist. Aimed at a Broad Definition of Eligibility for the Advancement of Women in the United States, Mary Anning, who, without formal qualifications, was found to be an important source of fossil finds from southern England.

Those hoping for strong female contenders will find their way to the list. But there are also inclusions that highlight the contributions of ethnic minorities and immigrants to British science.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock, author and genetics expert Emily Grossman, editor of the British Journal for the History of Science Simon Schaffer, and theoretical and particle physicist Simon Singh.

Appointments can include anyone who has worked in any field of science including astronomy, biology, bio-technology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, medical research, physics, technology or zoology.

Criminal use

There are currently 330 million £ 50 notes in circulation, with a combined value of £ 16.5bn, the Bank said.

A year ago there were doubts that the £ 50 note would continue to exist at all.

Fears that the largest denomination has been widely used by criminals and rarely for the purpose of prompting a government-led discussion on whether to abolish it.

The £ 50 note was described by Peter Sands, chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank, as the "currency of corrupt elites, of crime of all sorts and tax evasion".

Nevertheless, in October, the government announced plans for a new version of the bill, to be printed in the UK, which they said would be plastic – so, more durable, secure and harder to forge.

Steam engine pioneers James Watt and Matthew Boulton appear on the current £ 50, issued in 2011.