When Victoria Adlam graduates from the University of Otago today with a PhD in chemistry, she will be following a well-trodden path.
Ms Adlam (28) is the fourth generation of women in her family to graduate from the university with a science degree.
And to reinforce the family ties, she will be wearing the red doctorate gown first used by her great-aunt.
The links go back more than a century through her father Gavin Adlam's family.
They began with her great-great-aunt, Jane Kinder, who was born and raised in Balclutha and became one of New Zealand's earliest women doctors when she graduated from the Otago Medical School in 1900.
Family history records revealed she was refused a job in New Zealand because she was a woman and went to work in a Tb hospital in Adelaide.
She died of an illness which may have been Tb in 1902, aged 32.
Her niece, Ella Campbell, Ms Adlam's great-aunt, first graduated from the university with a BA in 1932.
But her life's work was botany and in 1976 she was awarded a doctor of science degree from the university in recognition of a lifetime of teaching and her internationally-acclaimed research into wetland plants.
The first woman staff member at Massey University, Dr Campbell was made a Dame Commander of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1997.
She officially retired from Massey in 1976, finally retired in 1990 at the age of 90 and died three years later.
Her niece Rosalie Adlam, Ms Adlam's aunt, upheld the family tradition by graduating with a bachelor of science degree in microbiology in 1977.
She now lives in Napier and is a self-employed computer software support person.
Ms Adlam said both she and her sister, Jane, had already graduated from the university, were the "fourth-equal" generation of the family to graduate.
But she said the extent of the family background in science was not realised until a discussion about her wearing Dame Ella's gown.
Knowing about the women who had gone before her was "pretty cool", she said.
"I remember going to Aunt Ella's funeral.
Hearing people talk about her life was great.
I am really proud that I have that history."
