She held a lecturership in palaeobotany at the University of Manchester from 1904 to 1907; she was first female academic of that university. In 1910, at the age of 30, she became a Fellow of University College London. She had reached the top of the tree. Not only was she a palaeobotanist, but she was an expert on the botany of the coal measures which were laid down in the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous). Coal was the most vital source of energy at that time.