LONDON — The Bank of England has decided to honor a scientist with its next bank note design. One of the nominees? Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister.

Mrs. Thatcher held power for more than a decade from 1979, reshaping British politics. But she appears on the central bank’s initial list of some 800 names because of her time as a research chemist at a food company in the late 1940s, playing a disputed but much-discussed role in the history of ice cream.

The bank plans to introduce a new 50-pound note — the largest and rarest of its regular denominations, worth about $64 — in 2020, as part of a program replacing paper bills with sturdier polymer versions. Its bills feature Queen Elizabeth on one side, and a historical figure on the other; the current £50 has James Watt and Matthew Boulton, pioneers of the steam engine.

Nominations for a replacement are open until Dec. 14, but on Monday the bank published the suggestions that had met its basic criteria so far.