Died in Sarisbury, Hampshire, at age 86, after a career that helped shape radiobiology and prion research.
On 2 February 1995, Tikvah Alper died in Sarisbury, Hampshire, England, at the age of 86. Her death marked the end of a career that had spanned early twentieth-century physics, mid-century radiobiology, and the late-century re-evaluation of scrapie as a model for prion disease.
Alper left behind a large family, including her husband Max, her sons Jonathan and Michael, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Her personal life remained closely intertwined with her scientific life, especially through her partnership with Sterne. The fact that she died in England rather than South Africa reflects the political displacement that shaped the latter half of her life after her opposition to apartheid led to forced emigration.
Her legacy was already secure by the time of her death. She is remembered for her pioneering radiobiology, for her early evidence challenging nucleic-acid-based explanations of scrapie transmission, and for the social justice commitments that informed her life. In the history of women’s science, her death date also serves as a reminder of how much of her influence emerged from sustained work across a long lifespan rather than a single dramatic discovery.