The former chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Professor Jardine was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society this year and won its prestigious medal for popularising science, as well as being awarded a CBE.
She was treated for breast cancer in 2005.
In a 2006 interview with the Guardian she said the experience had led her to increase her research efforts.
She said: “Faced with losing everything, you can’t help but look back on your life so far. And my feeling was that I hadn’t done enough. I want to do more, much more, and my resolution at the start of the current academic year was to work faster.”
The academic, who identified with socialism in her youth, described how her political views had developed over time. She said her views had “moderated with age, though I’m still well to the left of Tony Blair”.
Her father was Polish-British mathematician and scientist Jacob Bronowski, who presented the BBC documentary the Ascent of Man.
She recognised her father’s role in her success, she said: “When I started my career, he said: ‘Make sure you write the big books, Lisa; then they cannot accuse you of being lightweight’.”
Prof Jardine was married to the architect John Hare, they had two sons and a daughter.
