The facade of one of Britain’s most revered scientific institutions is to be altered to make way for the names of three women in a bid to set right a “historic injustice” against women.

The names of Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie and Alice Ball will be chiseled into a 90-year-old historic frieze adorning the The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the heart of Bloomsbury, London.

The grade two listed facade has until now only boasted the names of male scientists, including the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner, the English physician who discovered the smallpox vaccine.

Campaigners have long complained about the “airbrushing” of prominent women from history and recently – after a protected campaign – managed to get the author Jane Austin featured on the new £10 note.

The issue in the area of science is no less controversial and the alterations to the university’s frieze are designed to correct the imbalance.