Please research and summarize a famous female and / or minority chemist. Please note their background, education, work history and acomplishments. Two or three paragraphs would be appropriate. Thanks, Mr. A
Alice Hamilton was born in Indiana in 1869. She was home schooled during most of her life and received a doctorate at the University of Michigan Medical school. Then in 1897, she started working in Chicago. In Chicago she became interested in the problems workers faced. In 1907 she started studying industrial medicine and in 1908, she publicized her first article on the topic.
In 1919, she was the first woman appointed to the Faculty at Harvard Medical School. From 1924 to 1930 she served as the only woman member of the League of Nations Health Committee. Because of her numerous studies, she helped rise awareness of dangers in the workplace. Her work led to improved safety standards worldwide. Hamilton died in 1970. In tribute to her work, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health presented an award in her name to scientists and engineers who excel in her field.
Marie Daly's early studies consisted of researching the effects of cholesterol on the functions of the heart, the effects of sugar on health and the arteries, and the slowing down of the circulatory system as a result of advanced age or hypertension. In her later research she studied the production and organization of proteins in the cell.
Daly was able to overcome racial slanders to follow her hopes to become a chemist like her father would have been. She studied at Hunter College High School where her ambitions were encouraged. Later she enrolled at Queens College in Flushing where she received a bachelors degree in chemistry and one year later she received her masters degree while working a part time job at Queens College.
After she got her doctoral degree, she then taught for two years at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Then she moved on to research at Rockefeller Institute with Alfred E. Mirsky. She worked there for seven years studying the composition and metabolism of components of the cell nucleus. After seven years had passed, she moved to teach at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. In 1960 she became a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition to her research Daly was committed to improving programs to increase the enrollment of minority students in medical schools and graduate science programs. She retired in 1987 and died sixteen years later.
Esther Lederberg was born in 1922 in the Bronx. She is a microbiologist who studied in Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin. She later worked with both Universities. Joshua and Esther Lederberg discovered important groundwork on genetic inheritance in bacteria, gene regulation and genetic recombination. Their groundwork was significant to other future discoveries.
She discovered a virus that infects bacteria (lambda bacteriophage) in 1951. With this discovery they would transfer bacterial colonies (replica plating) that helped study of antibiotic resistance. The replica plating is still used today.
Joshua Lederberg got a Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1958. He shared the prize with George Beadle and Edward Tatum; however, Esther got no recognition. Later at a memorial service intended for Esther Lederberg in 2006 a colleague of hers stated that she should have gotten recognition for the replica plating and other achievement. Also, he stated, “She was not alone. Women were treated badly in academia in those days.”
Elizabeth Arden is famous female who started a major makeup empire and was also a minority chemist. Elizabeth Arden was a Canadian woman who did not study to become or even became a real chemist. She brought makeup two the world making it main stream but Elizabeth Arden succeed this with chemistry. Elizabeth Arden who's actual name is Florence Nightingale Graham started her scientific career working in the E.R. Squibb Pharmaceuticals Company spending hours in the lab studying makeup and skin care. She created scientific formulation of cosmetics, coordinating colors of eye, lip, and facial makeup as well as making them good for the skin. She created rouge and tinted powders that looked seamless when applied. Elizabeth was awarded the Légion d'Honneur by the French government due two her grand impact in the cosmetics industry in 1962. Not only was she the fist woman two start in scientific cosmetics but she built a cosmetics empire in the United States and at the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world. Anna B
Anna J. Harrison was born on December 23rd of 1912 who unlike many historical chemists (when you spend your days messing about with substances that so often turn out to be toxic, you’re invariably in danger of shuffling off this mortal coil earlier than most) was an American Organic Chemist and a professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for nearly forty years. She was also the first female president of the American Chemical Society. She worked on toxic smoke during the second world war, and also contributed to research on ultraviolet light. Harrison died at the age of 86 which was impressive for a chemist like herself. Cassia E.
Ida Freund was born in Austria in 1863. She lived with her grand parents in Vienna due to the death of her mother. When her grand parents passed in 1881 she moved to London to live with her uncle, the violinist Ludwig Straus well known as a member of the Joachim quartet and leader of the Halle orchestra. Freund enrolled at Girton College, achieving a first class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos course despite having previously had only school level English language skills. She went on to Cambridge Training College for Women as a chemistry lecturer, and one year later joined Newnham College, Cambridge, as a demonstrator. She was an associate at Newnham College and then a member of its council. Freund focused much on teaching which left her with little time to research. She did not pursue a masters or doctorate. To her students, Freund was an inspirational teacher and a singular character. When she was a child she had an accident and had lost a leg, therefore she used walking sticks and had a prosthetic leg. Ida Freund was an active feminist and supporter of women’s suffrage. She remained at Newnham until her retirement due to ill-health in 1913, she died on 15 May 1914 following surgery at her home in Cambridge while working on her second book. Sarah M.
Percy Julian developed the anti-glaucoma drug physostigmine. Dr. Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but educational opportunities for African Americans were limited in the South at that time, so he received his undergraduate degree from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. His research was conducted at DePauw University. Eager to earn an advanced degree, his professors discouraged him, saying he would have great difficulty in pursuing his profession. After graduation, Julian joined the faculty of Nashville's historically black Fisk University. Later he moved to Massachusetts and enrolled in Harvard University, where he earned his master's degree in 1923. Denied the teaching fellowship that customarily led to a doctorate at Harvard, he received a Rockefeller Grant and enrolled at the University of Vienna in Austria where he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1929. When he came back to America he actually got a job and managed to complete his research As one of his tributes for the anti-glaucoma drug physostigmine, the U.S. Postal Service recognized his contributions to science and issued a 29-cent Percy Julian stamp in 1993. The Julian stamp was part of a black heritage series that also recognized W.E.B. DuBois, Sojourner Truth, Jackie Robinson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Santi Z.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born on May 12, 1910 in Cairo, Egypt when her father was working in the Egyptian Education Service. Soon after she moved to Sudan and became very fond of the country. Once her father retired, he started working on archaeology sites in Sudan and Crowfoot decided to spend a season helping out her parents as she began getting very interested in archaeology.
She studied in Oxford and Somerville College from 1928 to 1932. For a short period of time during her first year, she studied both archaeology and chemistry. She analyzed glass tesserae from Jerash with E.G.J. Hartley. She attended a course in crystallography and decided to follow the advice from her tutor F.M. Brewer to do research in X-ray crystallography. She then moved to Cambridge in order to meet some scientists that were important in the metal research area. Somerville gave her a research fellowship which would take place one year in Cambridge and one year in Oxford, where she stayed permanently.
When she returned to Oxford in 1934, she began collecting money for X-ray equipment. She won a Nobel Prize in 1964 for her efforts on the structures of important biochemical substances by using X-rays.
Astrid Cleve von Euler was a Swedish chemist. In addition to chemistry, Cleve also studied botany and geology. She was born on January 22, 1875 and died on April 8, 1968. Astrid Cleve was the first woman in Sweden to get a doctoral degree of science. She was the daughter of Caralma Öhbom and Per Teodor Cleve, a chemist, oceanographer, geologist, and professor.
Because her family was so academic, Cleve received an education early on at home from her mother. Then she went to school at a boarding school called Lausanne from ages 11 to 13. After this, she completed her secondary education at home. Her father taught Cleve the basics of science in his laboratory, which made Cleve interested in diatoms. At just sixteen years old, Cleve got her baccalaureate, after which she was accepted to Uppsala University in 1891 in the study of natural science. She graduated in January 1894 with a bachelor’s degree. After graduating, Cleve worked as an assistant chemistry professor at Stockholm University. She also taught at Norrmalm Högre Realläroverket from 1912 to 1914 and at Nya Elementarskola from 1912 to 1916. From 1917 to 1923, she was the head of the Skoghallsverkens Forskiningslaboratorium, where she conducted some of her research.
Cleve’s early research was the study of diatoms in the high-altitude lakes in different parts of Sweden. She published work in which she identified and drew newly discovered diatoms in the Arctic lakes. She also published several chemistry papers concerning nitrogenous organic chemicals in different structures. Cleve discovered the atomic weight and other properties of ytterbium. She also published papers on lanthanum and selenium while she was researching in Stockholm. She studied nitrogenous organic compounds, the synthesis of ketoses from formaldehyde, metal-ammonia complexes, the chemicals in resin, and industrial alcohol synthesis with Hans von Euler-Chelpin. Most importantly, her papers on the study of plankton in bodies of water near Stockholm are still significant today because they are the only records of diatomaceous plankton before there was lots of pollution in the Stockholm region.
Percy Lavon Julian was an African American chemist who lived from 1899 to 1975. He was from Montgomery, Alabama, and his grandfather had been a slave. He studied at DePauw University during the time of segregation. The cafeteria staff at the University did not serve him food, and he had to work several jobs to afford his own home. He was valedictorian and later obtained his Master's degree in chemistry at Harvard. Perhaps Dr. Julian’s most important invention was the process for synthesizing human sex and steroid hormones from plant precursors. He had discovered a way to obtain these precursors to human steroid hormones by treating soybeans. Other people has been successful in extracting these hormones from animals, but they could not have been mass produced from this source. This production method allowed Dr. Julian to make 100 lb per day of these substances, valued at $10,000. Apart from their commonly known use as ergogenic aids, steroids are used daily in anything from treating rashes to saving lives. Cortisone, one of the compounds that Dr. Julian found out how to make, is used in creams to treat insect bites, burns, and rashes. Corticosteroids are used topically to stop inflammation in different parts of the body. Dr. Julian’s invention of these processes helped future scientists refine these and make them more efficient. They also served as a base for extracting other medicinal compounds from plants, not only steroids. He held over 130 patents and was the first African-American to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
Ada Lifshitz, now Ada Yonath, was born in the British Mandate of Palestine, which is now Israel, on June 22, 1939, and is currently 74 years old. Yonath’s parents, Hillel and Esther LIfshitz, were Zionist Jews who immigrated to Palestine from Poland in 1933 before the establishment of Israel. Her father was a rabbi. They settled in Jerusalem, where they lived in cramped quarters with several other families, but despite their poverty, they managed to send Ada to a good school. Ada’s parents could not afford the tuition, so Esther gave math lessons to the other children in return for her daughter’s education. Yonath then attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s in biochemistry. She later achieved a Ph.D in X-Ray crystallography in the Weizmann Institute of Science. Yonath accepted postdoctoral positions in both the Carnegie Mellon University and MIT.
Ada Yonath is formally an Israeli crystallographer and is best known for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome. She focuses on mechanisms underlying protein synthesis using ribosomal crystallography, a research line developed twenty years prior that produced a lot of skepticism. Her work consisted of comparing the ribosomal structures in microorganisms and eukaryotes and see the effects of antibiotics on both. Her work goes beyond the structure of ribosomal subunits and asymmetrical ribosomes and even developed antibiotics targeting the ribosome and mechanisms drug resistance.
Yonath is a member of various biology and chemistry academies throughout the world. Her awards include the European Crystallography Prize (2000), the Israeli Prize for chemistry (2002), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2006), the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2007), was the first woman to win the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008), the Albert Einstein World Award for Science (2008), and the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, among many other awards, medals, and prizes. She was the first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize, the first Middle-Eastern woman to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences, and the first woman in 45 years to win the chemistry Nobel Prize.
Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet, the first woman to receive honorary membership of Britain's Royal Society. However, she was not scientist at first. She was born in Germany 1750. Her family was very musical, and when her older brother, William, moved to England as a musician, she went with him as a singer too. However, when he turns mid-30s, he started interested in astronomy and she was working his assistant. Often, she used Newtonian sweeper to study about the sky by herself. In fact, soon after she discovered new 14 nebulae, which includes NGC 205 and the companion to the Andromeda Galaxy. Throughout of her all amazed achievements, the biggest step to develop our science was the discovery of a comet in 1786. She was the first woman who discovered this even though she probably had disadvantage condition from sexual racist people. After this amazed achievement, King George III officially employed her as a William's assistant and he provided a salary which was the first woman in 1787. After her brother died, she returned to Germany and continued the work on catalog of nebulae. Then, she received the Gold Medal f the Royal Astronomical Society. She died in 1848. On her tombstone, there is the inscription says, "The eyes of her who is glorified here below turned to the starry heavens."
Lise Meitner was a physicist born in Vienna, Austria in 1878. She was the third of eight children of a Jewish family. Meitner got her education in the University of Vienna. She was accepted in 1901. There she discovered that her passion was physics even though the Noble Prize was denied was the chemistry one. In 1907, Meitner moved to Berlin to collaborate with Otto Hahn. They collaborated during thirty years. In March of 1938 the Nazi annexed Austria so Meitner fled to Sweden where she continued to secretly work with Hahn.
Hahn would conduct the experiments and Meitner along with her nephew Otto Frisch would come up with the explanations because Hahn was not capable of doing it. These experiments supported the idea of nuclear fission. Hahn proceeded to publish their findings without giving credit to Meitner. She was denied any credit in this first paper for being a Jew because the Nazis were still active. In 1944 Hahn was awarded the Noble Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to splitting the atom. It is known that the Noble physics committee actively wanted to shut Meitner out of the discovery for being a woman. She died in 1968. Lise Meitner’s story is a clear case of sexism in the early 1900’s where she was denied the credit to a discovery where her work was crucial.
Lloyd Augustus Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois on June 20th 1894. His grandmother had come to Illinois via the Underground Railroad as she was fleeing the colored discrimination of the South. Lloyd was raised by his parents, two high school graduates, who educated him strictly. This would later help him become a successful scientist. Lloyd was in the top of ten of his class of 250. The class only had four colored people including himself. He got scholarships from many Universities and chose Northwestern University. He majored in chemistry and in 1916 graduated with a BS degree. Later on, he did a graduate program at the University of Chicago. All in all, he was brilliant and well-educated. Hall is best known for his achievements in food chemistry. He worked in the following places: Junior chemist in Chicago Department of Health Laboratories, Senior chemist in Chicago Department of Health Laboratories, Chief Chemist in John Morrell Co., and President of Chemical Products Corporation in Chicago. Interesting to note, Lloyd kept ascending in ranks. He started out a junior chemist and rose all the way up to President. Lloyd revolutionized the curing salts process for preserving meats. He used a “flash-driving” evaporating technique that is still used today. He developed a method using sodium chloride, nitrate, and nitrate crystals to preserve it. Next, he helped invent a process to prepare food antioxidants for food preservation. This is because when exposed to oxygen they go bad so he came up with a way to help preserve it longer. Thanks to his achievements, he kept food pure and palatable in WW2. Lloyd was a great chemist that achieved a lot for being a colored man in the US at the time.
George Washington Carver was an agriculture chemist who made great advances in the industrial uses of specific crops as well as advancing the crop rotation system. He did all of this as an african american who was actually a slave.
George Washington Carver was born into slavery in 1865. His parents were purchased earlier by a German-American for a paltry $700. George was the only of 10 children who didn't die prematurely. Once slavery was abolished, his former slaves raised him. At the time, blacks were still not allowed in Public schools, and George was taught by his former owners until he left to a school specifically for blacks. There he met a women, Mariah Watkins, who inspired him but after he witnessed a black man being lynched by a group of whites, he decided to leave. He attended many schools and ended up graduating in Kansas. The next challenge he faced was college. After being accepted on paper to Highland College, when he got there, he was rejected because of his race. Later, he was accepted into Iowa State as the only black man in the Agriculture school. There, he completed his Bachelor of Science. Later in Tuskegee Institute, George completed his most famous discoveries. As far as his advancements go, George discovered a number of alternate crops for cotton. He found industrial uses for crops such as peanuts and soy beans. After his discoveries, George was presented with many awards. Amongst them, his most famous was the Spingarn award.
It is clear the George Carver overcame great adversity and through these adversities, his advancements in agriculture chemistry are even more remarkable.
Anna Jane Harrison really does the name Anna proud. In 1978 Anna was announced the first ever leader of the American Chemical Society (ACS). She was known for great things such as her devotion for teaching.
Anna Harrison was not always a big name in the chemistry world. Born on a farm in missouri few would have imagined she would have ended up working as a chemistry teacher in Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Her interest in science first sparked up when they began to do scientific work in her elementary school about caterpillars.
Anna harrison used spectroscopy to investigate the molecular structures of various compounds.
Marie Maynard Daily was born on April 16, 1921 in Queens, New York. She showed a profound interest in chemistry from an early age, probably inspired by her father’s love for this area of study. She graduated magna cum laude in 1942 from Queens College with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She then pursued her graduate studies in both Columbia and New York University. Throughout her academic and professional career, Marie overcame many obstacles due to racial and gender discrimination. She made history in 1947 as the first African American female to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry. Marie’s professional career was spent leading research projects and teaching at various institutions of higher education. She is known for her groundbreaking advancements in the study of cells, proteins, and mechanics of the heart. Marie helped clarify the effects of cholesterol on the heart, and the functioning and storing of proteins in the human body, among other things. Daily was a professor at Howard University in D.C, Columbia, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement in 1986. Marie was also committed to helping minority students in their pursuing of opportunities in the world of medicine and science. In 1988, she established a scholarship fund for African Americans in Queens College. Daly died on October 28, 2003 in New York City.
Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. Marie was the youngest of five children and her parents were both teachers. Her father taught physics and math and her mother was headmistress at a girl’s school. She received a general education in a local school and some scientific training from her father. She moved to Paris in 1891. She studied at the Sorbonne, where she gained Licentiateships in Physics and Mathematical Sciences. She met Pierre Curie, a Professor in the School of Physics, in 1894 and the next year they got married. She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne and she later earned her Doctor of Science Degree in 1903. When her husband died in 1906 she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences. She was the first woman that ever held that position. In addition, she was appointed as the Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.
Marie Curie and her husband spent a lot of time in the laboratory investigating pitchblende. They discovered that there were two new elements in pitchblende, which meant they had discovered two new elements for the periodic table. One element is called polonium and the other is called radium. They came up with the term “radioactivity” to describe elements that gave off strong rays. In 1903, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in radiation. Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded the prize. Soon after, doctors found out that radiology could help with curing cancer. In 1911, Marie Curie also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering two new elements. She was the first person to be awarded two Noble Prizes. Marie Curie later died on July 4, 1934, due to overexposure to radiation.
Charles Martin Hall was an American chemist. He was born on December 6th 1863. Hall began his education at home. He was taught to read from an early age by his mother and soon found chemistry very interesting. He and his family moved to Oberlin, Ohio in 1873. There, he spent three years at the local school of Oberlin and a year at the Oberlin Academy. Along these years, he had already found in chemistry a passion. It is said that he practiced several experiments in the kitchen and the woodshed attached to his house. In 1880 he joined the Oberlin local college. He was encouraged to be a scientist by Frank Fanning Jewett, a famous professor.
He first attempted unsuccessfully to produce aluminum from clay by smelting with carbon in contact with charcoal and potassium chlorate. He later investigated cheaper methods to produce aluminum chloride, also unsuccessfully. After years of many more investigations, Hall was considered the American foundator of aluminium.
Hall became one of Oberlin ´s College ´s most prominent representatives. He has been honored a statue of him made by aluminium. It currently sits on the second floor of Oberlin ´s new science center. He also won the Perkin medal, which is the best waward in American industrial chemistry, in 1911. Diego M - C
Marie Daly was born on April 16th 1921 in New York. She was born into an education-oriented family and she quickly got her B.S. and M.S. in chemistry at New York University and Queens College. Soon after, she enrolled at Columbia University as a doctoral student. There she met Dr. Mary Caldwell who would be a mentor to her in the future. She was known for her research on starch enzyme and amylase. When she graduated from Columbia University in 1947 she became the first African-American Woman in the U.S. to earn a ph.D. in chemistry. She became a role model for other African-American woman pursuing science during a time of great racial and gender bias to pursue chemistry. Furthermore, she developed programs to increase the enrollment of minority students in medical schools.
After receiving her Ph.D, she taught for two years at Howard University. Following a grant from the American Cancer Society to support her postdoctoral research, she joined Alfred E. Mirsky (a pioneer in molecular biology) at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. There, she worked on the composition and metabolism of components of the cell’s nucleus for seven years. Moreover, she taught biochemistry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and became a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement.
Many female scientists throughout the past have not be accredited for there merits and honors, as people lived in a very sexist environment.
Gertrude Ellion was born on January 23, 1918 in New York. She admired her grandfather, who died of cancer. This ignited gertrude´s passion for medicine and science. She later graduated from Hunter College in 1937 with a medicine degree.
She started working as a lab asssitant and a high school science teacher. She later worked with George Hitchings in a pharmaceutical company. During her time in the pharmaceutical company she invented many things, but the most well known are Purinethol for leukimia, and Zovirax for oral herpes.
In 1988 Elion received the Nobel Prize for Medicine, in 1991 she also received the National Medal of Science. And finally in 1997 she received the MIT Lifetime Achievement Award. She died in 1999.
Mario Molina (Ciudad de Mexico 1943). Coming from a very good family of diplomats, Mario did his Upper School in Switzerland and then entered the Facultad de Quimica de la UNAM to study chemical engineering. After graduating he went to Friburgo University investigating polymerization kinetics. He then earned a doctorade degree in Berkley.
He was a pioneer in the research of the hot atom chemistry. This is the study of chemical properties of atoms with excess translational energy owing to radioactive processes. This led to the research of chrloflourocarbons (CFCs). He and another chemist tried CFCs might be destroyed in the lower atmosphere. CFCs released did not decay by other processes and continued to rise until destroyed by solar radiation. Thanks to this laws regulated the amount of CFCs released to protect the ozone layer.
He won the Nobel Prize in 1995, the NASA medal of Exceptional Scientific Advancement and the United Nations Environmental Programme Global Award. In 2013, Barack Obama gave him the Medal of Freedom.
Carolyn R. Bertozzi did her undergraduate degree from Hardvard in 1988 and she then later got her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1993 in US Berkley. She began to do work at UCSF having to do with cellular immunology when she later joined the US Berkeley faculty in 1996. She is currently a professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkley, she is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Her research focuses on the disciplines of chemistry and biology and the cell surface of glycosylation pertinent to disease states. She profiles the changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and exploiting this information for the development of diagonistics and therapeutic approaches. She has been awarded with many awards and recognitions of her work. She was elected as a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Her awards include awards from: Lemelson-MIT, Whistler Award, Ernst Schering Prize, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry ect.
Patricia Era Bath was born in November 4, 1942 in Harlem, New York (she is 71 nowadays.) She is an afro-american ophthalmologist, inventor and academic. She has been important for woman and african-americans in different areas.
Prior to Bath, no woman had served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology or been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center . Before her, no african-american had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no african-american woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Centre. Bath is the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. She invented a Laserphaco Probe that is used to treat cataracts. She is holder of four patents and she is also the founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington D.C.
Ruth R. Benerito was born in New Orleans in 1916. She completed high school at age 14 and a year later she entered Sophie Newcomb College. Later, she went to Tulane University where she earned a degree in chemistry. She graduated during the Great Depression and hoped to do research, but jobs were scarce and for a time she had to teach at local schools in Jefferson Parish, west of New Orleans, before making her name as a research chemist.
Then, Benerito went to Bryn Mawr, and back to Newcomb where she taught chemistry while researching advanced quantitative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics. While working as a teacher, Benerito took night classes to earn her master's degree from Tulane University. During World War II she taught college classes, and she earned her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago when the war ended. She married Frank Benerito in 1950 and went to work at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture in New Orleans.
In later years, while she was researching cotton fibers, Benerito taught classes part-time at Tulane University and at the University of New Orleans. She retired from the USDA in 1986 but continued to teach part-time at Tulane and the University of New Orleans. Benerito is most famous for her invention of more durable and wrinkle-free fiber.
Stephanie Louise Kwolel is an american chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide better known as Kevlar. She was born in New Kingston, Pennsylvania. She was born in 1923, Stephanie got her interest science from her father who was a naturalist by advocation and died when she was 10 years old, and she got her love for fashion from her mother. She graduated from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College with a degree in Chemistry and planned on becoming a doctor. She began working for DuPonts Buffalo, New York Facility where she discovered Kevlar. Kevlar is a synthetic fiber of high tensile strength, it is used in creating boats, cars, tires and bulletproof armour. In 1986 Stephanie retired as a research associate for DuPont,even though she still consults for him and for the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences. In 1995 she became the fourth women to be added to the National Inventors Wall of Fame and in 1996 she recieved the National Medal of Technology, in 2003, she was added to the National Womens Hall of Fame.
Stephanie Louise Kwolel is an american chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide better known as Kevlar. She was born in New Kingston, Pennsylvania in 1923, Stephanie got her interest science from her father who was a naturalist by advocation and died when she was 10 years old, and she got her love for fashion from her mother. She graduated from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College with a degree in Chemistry and planned on becoming a doctor. She began working for DuPonts Buffalo, New York Facility where she discovered Kevlar. Kevlar is a synthetic fiber of high tensile strength, it is used in creating boats, cars, tires and bulletproof armour.
In 1986 Stephanie retired as a research associate for DuPont,even though she still consults for him and for the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences. In 1995 she became the fourth women to be added to the National Inventors Wall of Fame and in 1996 she received the National Medal of Technology, in 2003, she was added to the National Womens Hall of Fame.
George Washington Carver was born on a Missouri farm near Diamond Grove (now called Diamond), Newton County in Marion Township, Missouri. He received a B.S. from the Iowa Agricultural College in 1894 and a M.S. in 1896. He became a member of the faculty of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in charge of the school's bacterial laboratory work in the Systematic Botany department. His work with agricultural products developed industrial applications from farm products, called chemurgy in technical literature in the early 1900s. His research developed 325 products from peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes, and 75 products derived from pecans. He moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 1896 to accept a position as an instructor at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and remained on the faculty until his death in 1943. His work in developing industrial applications from agricultural products derived 118 products, including a rubber substitute and over 500 dyes and pigments, from 28 different plants. He was responsible for the invention in 1927 of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans, for which three separate patents were issued.
George Washington Carver was honored by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in July 14, 1943 dedicating $30,000 for a national monument to be dedicated to his accomplishments. The area of Carver's childhood near Diamond Grove, Missouri has been preserved as a park, with a bust of the agricultural researcher, instructor, and chemical investigator. This park was the first designated national monument to an African American in the United States. George Washington Carver was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Simpson College in 1928. He was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1923, which is given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of colored People. The Spingarn Medal is awarded to the black person who has made the greatest contribution to the advancement of his race. Carver died of anemia at Tuskegee Institute on January 5, 1943 and was buried on campus beside Booker T. Washington.
Ruth R. Benerito was born in New Orleans on January 12th 1916 and raised there. Even though she lived in an age where girls did not usually get a higher education her father made sure his daughters received the same education available to boys. Benerito completed high school at 14 and with 15 entered Sophie Newcomb College. She then went to Tulane University where she got her degree in chemistry. Due to the fact that she graduated during the Great Depression she had to teach at local schools in Jefferson Parish since jobs were scarce and she therefor could not do the research she hoped to do until later on. She went to Bryn Mawr and then back to Newcomb where she researched quantative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics at the same time as teaching chemistry. During the time that she worked as a teacher Benerito took night classes to get her master’s degree from Tulane University. During the Second World War she taught college classes and got her doctorate in physical chemistry after the war from the University of Chicago. After marrying Frank Benerito in 1950 she went to work at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center of the US department of Agriculture in New Orleans. This is where she ended up spending most of her career. In her later years Benerito taught classes part time at Tulane University and at the University of New Orleans while she was researching cotton fibers. Even though she retired from the USDA in 1986 she continued to teach part time at Tulane and the University of New Orleans. At the end of her career she help 55 patents, the most famous of which was her invention of more durable and wrinkle free fiber.
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who was born into slavery in Diamond Grove in 1864. Although his life did not start out quiet well being kidnapped and having his family die after being sold as slaves he managed to become a famous agriculture chemist. He rose to fame because of his techniques to develop cotton yields. Also he improved an agricultural extension program for Alabama and worked on developing various of applications for the new crops. However, it was not easy for him to become famous for his works. His first obstacle came rolling in his life when he had to go to a college. He was accepted at Highland College, however, he got rejected since he was black. So instead of attending college he decided to work alone near Beeler. This decision became the opening of his success. His life changed little by little starting with $300 loan at a Bank for education. He started his learning life with art and piano. Then he was suggested to continue his education for his master's degree. Then his effort at the experiment station in plant pathology and mycology first gained him national recognition and respect. After graduation from Iowa State University he progressed with his famous experiments.
Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867. She received a general education in her early years, and some scientific training from her father. She was very interested in science and in 1891 she went to Paris to continue her studies at Sorbonne where she obtained Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. While being there she met Pierre Curie, a physics professor and married him in 1895. Continuing her career, she gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and after Pierre's death she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the first time a woman had held this position. With the help of the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel, Marie's research led into the isolation of polonium(Mme), by using methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues, that allowed them to be analyzed more carefully. During World War I she promoted the idea of using radium to aid the injured. She became an admiration by other scientists, she also became a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911. She received many awards in honor of her work, including a Nobel Prize for her work in radioactivity. Marie Curie Died in Savoy, France, July 4th 1934.
Marie Curie was born on November 7th, 1867 in Poland. She was also a physicist as well as a chemist, and she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1911 and also to become a professor at the University of Paris. She also won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1903, which was shared with her husband Pierre Curie, who was also a scientist. Her achievements included the Theory of Radioactivity, techniques of isolating radioactive isotopes, and she also discovered the two elements polonium and radium. Later, she founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw, which nowadays remain as major centers of medical research. During the World War I, she established the first military field radiological centers. She died on the 4th of July in 1934 in France. Her death was led by too much exposure to radiation during her X-ray experiments that eventually caused aplastic anemia.
Marie M. Daly was born in New York, on April 16, 1921. She was an African American who came from a family that strongly believed in the power of education. She entered into the New York University after graduating from Queens College in 1942 with honors. However, her lack of money conducted her to work as a lab assistant at her college to cover all the costs for getting a graduate degree in chemistry. After that, she enrolled at Columbia University in 1944, as a doctoral student. It was there where she met Dr Mary L. Caldwell, a renowned scientist who held the chemistry program, and developed new paths for women in chemistry. Daly studied how a human's body's chemicals helped digestion. She finished her doctorate in 1947, and became the first female African American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry.
After that, Daly joined the American Cancer Society and also, a seven year research program at the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine, intrigued by the human's inner body's workings. There she examined how proteins are constructed in the body, until 1955, when she returned to Columbia, working closely with Dr. Quentin B. Deming on the causes of heart attacks. A few years later, she was relocated to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, where she recieved many honors, including induction into Phi Beta Kappa, as well as being tapped as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She retired from Albert Einstein College in 1986, and died in New York City on October 28, 2003.
Hu had a bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaii and a PhD from University of Technology California in 1977, she conducted postdoctoral research into membrane biochemistry and immunology at the University of California.
In her research, she classified autistic children into subgroups based on their Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised scores, and, as a result, found single nucleotide polymorphisms. Hu's research has demonstrated that levels of two proteins produced by genes which showed changes in DNA methylation were reduced in the brains of autistic children relative to controls. Therefore she has proposed that the use of drugs which block the chemical tagging of these genes may be a useful treatment for autism.
Irène Curie, born in Paris, September 12, 1897, was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and since 1926 the wife of Frédéric Joliot. After having started her studies at the Faculty of Science in Paris, she served as a nurse radiographer during the First World War. She became Doctor of Science in 1925, having prepared a thesis on the alpha rays of polonium. Either alone or in collaboration with her husband, she did important work on natural and artificial radioactivity, transmutation of elements, and nuclear physics; she shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1935 with him, in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements, which work has been summarized in their joint paper Production artificielle d'éléments radioactifs. Preuve chimique de la transmutation des éléments (1934).
In 1938 her research on the action of neutrons on the heavy elements, was an important step in the discovery of uranium fission. Appointed lecturer in 1932, she became Professor in the Faculty of Science in Paris in 1937, and afterwards Director of the Radium Institute in 1946. Being a Commissioner for Atomic Energy for six years, Irène took part in its creation and in the construction of the first French atomic pile (1948). She was concerned in the inauguration of the large centre for nuclear physics at Orsay for which she worked out the plans. This centre was equipped with a synchro-cyclotron of 160 MeV, and its construction was continued after her death by F. Joliot. She took a keen interest in the social and intellectual advancement of women; she was a member of the Comité National de l'Union des Femmes Françaises and of the World Peace Council. In 1936 Irène Joliot-Curie was appointed Undersecretary of State for Scientific Research. She was a member of several foreign academies and of numerous scientific societies, had honorary doctor's degrees of several universities, and was an Officer of the Legion of Honour. She died in Paris in 1956.
Jean Frédéric and Irene Joliot-Curie had one daughter, Helene, and one son, Pierre.
In 1965, DuPont (a chemical company) was searching for new innovations that would allow them to save a life and Stephanie Kwolek was a great contributor.
Kwolek was looking for synthetic material that could resist severe conditions so she focused mainly on fibers. Out of nowhere, she discovers that after dissolving the aramid polyamides in a solvent, they could be turned into strong fibers.The material invented was five times stronger than steel, it was light and it did not rust. In 1966, DuPont named the new material Kevlar.
This discovery allowed people to use the material for body armor, for the transmission of messages across the ocean to protect the fiber wire, to suspend bridges and it was also used as a protective material used in clothes. In 1944, Kwolek joined the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Alice Hamilton was born in Indiana in 1869. She was home schooled during most of her life and received a doctorate at the University of Michigan Medical school. Then in 1897, she started working in Chicago. In Chicago she became interested in the problems workers faced. In 1907 she started studying industrial medicine and in 1908, she publicized her first article on the topic.
ReplyDeleteIn 1919, she was the first woman appointed to the Faculty at Harvard Medical School. From 1924 to 1930 she served as the only woman member of the League of Nations Health Committee. Because of her numerous studies, she helped rise awareness of dangers in the workplace. Her work led to improved safety standards worldwide. Hamilton died in 1970. In tribute to her work, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health presented an award in her name to scientists and engineers who excel in her field.
Elisa R.
Marie Maynard Daly
ReplyDeleteMarie Daly's early studies consisted of researching the effects of cholesterol on the functions of the heart, the effects of sugar on health and the arteries, and the slowing down of the circulatory system as a result of advanced age or hypertension. In her later research she studied the production and organization of proteins in the cell.
Daly was able to overcome racial slanders to follow her hopes to become a chemist like her father would have been. She studied at Hunter College High School where her ambitions were encouraged. Later she enrolled at Queens College in Flushing where she received a bachelors degree in chemistry and one year later she received her masters degree while working a part time job at Queens College.
After she got her doctoral degree, she then taught for two years at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Then she moved on to research at Rockefeller Institute with Alfred E. Mirsky. She worked there for seven years studying the composition and metabolism of components of the cell nucleus. After seven years had passed, she moved to teach at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. In 1960 she became a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition to her research Daly was committed to improving programs to increase the enrollment of minority students in medical schools and graduate science programs. She retired in 1987 and died sixteen years later.
Maia D.
Esther Lederberg was born in 1922 in the Bronx. She is a microbiologist who studied in Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin. She later worked with both Universities. Joshua and Esther Lederberg discovered important groundwork on genetic inheritance in bacteria, gene regulation and genetic recombination. Their groundwork was significant to other future discoveries.
ReplyDeleteShe discovered a virus that infects bacteria (lambda bacteriophage) in 1951. With this discovery they would transfer bacterial colonies (replica plating) that helped study of antibiotic resistance. The replica plating is still used today.
Joshua Lederberg got a Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1958. He shared the prize with George Beadle and Edward Tatum; however, Esther got no recognition. Later at a memorial service intended for Esther Lederberg in 2006 a colleague of hers stated that she should have gotten recognition for the replica plating and other achievement. Also, he stated, “She was not alone. Women were treated badly in academia in those days.”
Blanca M
Elizabeth Arden is famous female who started a major makeup empire and was also a minority chemist. Elizabeth Arden was a Canadian woman who did not study to become or even became a real chemist. She brought makeup two the world making it main stream but Elizabeth Arden succeed this with chemistry. Elizabeth Arden who's actual name is Florence Nightingale Graham started her scientific career working in the E.R. Squibb Pharmaceuticals Company spending hours in the lab studying makeup and skin care. She created scientific formulation of cosmetics, coordinating colors of eye, lip, and facial makeup as well as making them good for the skin. She created rouge and tinted powders that looked seamless when applied. Elizabeth was awarded the Légion d'Honneur by the French government due two her grand impact in the cosmetics industry in 1962. Not only was she the fist woman two start in scientific cosmetics but she built a cosmetics empire in the United States and at the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.
ReplyDeleteAnna B
Anna J. Harrison was born on December 23rd of 1912 who unlike many historical chemists (when you spend your days messing about with substances that so often turn out to be toxic, you’re invariably in danger of shuffling off this mortal coil earlier than most) was an American Organic Chemist and a professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for nearly forty years.
ReplyDeleteShe was also the first female president of the American Chemical Society. She worked on toxic smoke during the second world war, and also contributed to research on ultraviolet light. Harrison died at the age of 86 which was impressive for a chemist like herself.
Cassia E.
Ida Freund was born in Austria in 1863. She lived with her grand parents in Vienna due to the death of her mother. When her grand parents passed in 1881 she moved to London to live with her uncle, the violinist Ludwig Straus well known as a member of the Joachim quartet and leader of the Halle orchestra. Freund enrolled at Girton College, achieving a first class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos course despite having previously had only school level English language skills. She went on to Cambridge Training College for Women as a chemistry lecturer, and one year later joined Newnham College, Cambridge, as a demonstrator. She was an associate at Newnham College and then a member of its council.
ReplyDeleteFreund focused much on teaching which left her with little time to research. She did not pursue a masters or doctorate. To her students, Freund was an inspirational teacher and a singular character. When she was a child she had an accident and had lost a leg, therefore she used walking sticks and had a prosthetic leg.
Ida Freund was an active feminist and supporter of women’s suffrage. She remained at Newnham until her retirement due to ill-health in 1913, she died on 15 May 1914 following surgery at her home in Cambridge while working on her second book.
Sarah M.
Percy Julian developed the anti-glaucoma drug physostigmine. Dr. Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but educational opportunities for African Americans were limited in the South at that time, so he received his undergraduate degree from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. His research was conducted at DePauw University.
ReplyDeleteEager to earn an advanced degree, his professors discouraged him, saying he would have great difficulty in pursuing his profession. After graduation, Julian joined the faculty of Nashville's historically black Fisk University. Later he moved to Massachusetts and enrolled in Harvard University, where he earned his master's degree in 1923. Denied the teaching fellowship that customarily led to a doctorate at Harvard, he received a Rockefeller Grant and enrolled at the University of Vienna in Austria where he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1929. When he came back to America he actually got a job and managed to complete his research
As one of his tributes for the anti-glaucoma drug physostigmine, the U.S. Postal Service recognized his contributions to science and issued a 29-cent Percy Julian stamp in 1993. The Julian stamp was part of a black heritage series that also recognized W.E.B. DuBois, Sojourner Truth, Jackie Robinson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Santi Z.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born on May 12, 1910 in Cairo, Egypt when her father was working in the Egyptian Education Service. Soon after she moved to Sudan and became very fond of the country. Once her father retired, he started working on archaeology sites in Sudan and Crowfoot decided to spend a season helping out her parents as she began getting very interested in archaeology.
ReplyDeleteShe studied in Oxford and Somerville College from 1928 to 1932. For a short period of time during her first year, she studied both archaeology and chemistry. She analyzed glass tesserae from Jerash with E.G.J. Hartley. She attended a course in crystallography and decided to follow the advice from her tutor F.M. Brewer to do research in X-ray crystallography. She then moved to Cambridge in order to meet some scientists that were important in the metal research area. Somerville gave her a research fellowship which would take place one year in Cambridge and one year in Oxford, where she stayed permanently.
When she returned to Oxford in 1934, she began collecting money for X-ray equipment. She won a Nobel Prize in 1964 for her efforts on the structures of important biochemical substances by using X-rays.
Lydia B.
Astrid Cleve
ReplyDeleteAstrid Cleve von Euler was a Swedish chemist. In addition to chemistry, Cleve also studied botany and geology. She was born on January 22, 1875 and died on April 8, 1968. Astrid Cleve was the first woman in Sweden to get a doctoral degree of science. She was the daughter of Caralma Öhbom and Per Teodor Cleve, a chemist, oceanographer, geologist, and professor.
Because her family was so academic, Cleve received an education early on at home from her mother. Then she went to school at a boarding school called Lausanne from ages 11 to 13. After this, she completed her secondary education at home. Her father taught Cleve the basics of science in his laboratory, which made Cleve interested in diatoms. At just sixteen years old, Cleve got her baccalaureate, after which she was accepted to Uppsala University in 1891 in the study of natural science. She graduated in January 1894 with a bachelor’s degree. After graduating, Cleve worked as an assistant chemistry professor at Stockholm University. She also taught at Norrmalm Högre Realläroverket from 1912 to 1914 and at Nya Elementarskola from 1912 to 1916. From 1917 to 1923, she was the head of the Skoghallsverkens Forskiningslaboratorium, where she conducted some of her research.
Cleve’s early research was the study of diatoms in the high-altitude lakes in different parts of Sweden. She published work in which she identified and drew newly discovered diatoms in the Arctic lakes. She also published several chemistry papers concerning nitrogenous organic chemicals in different structures. Cleve discovered the atomic weight and other properties of ytterbium. She also published papers on lanthanum and selenium while she was researching in Stockholm. She studied nitrogenous organic compounds, the synthesis of ketoses from formaldehyde, metal-ammonia complexes, the chemicals in resin, and industrial alcohol synthesis with Hans von Euler-Chelpin. Most importantly, her papers on the study of plankton in bodies of water near Stockholm are still significant today because they are the only records of diatomaceous plankton before there was lots of pollution in the Stockholm region.
-- Iines K.
Percy Lavon Julian was an African American chemist who lived from 1899 to 1975. He was from Montgomery, Alabama, and his grandfather had been a slave. He studied at DePauw University during the time of segregation. The cafeteria staff at the University did not serve him food, and he had to work several jobs to afford his own home. He was valedictorian and later obtained his Master's degree in chemistry at Harvard.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Dr. Julian’s most important invention was the process for synthesizing human sex and steroid hormones from plant precursors. He had discovered a way to obtain these precursors to human steroid hormones by treating soybeans. Other people has been successful in extracting these hormones from animals, but they could not have been mass produced from this source. This production method allowed Dr. Julian to make 100 lb per day of these substances, valued at $10,000. Apart from their commonly known use as ergogenic aids, steroids are used daily in anything from treating rashes to saving lives. Cortisone, one of the compounds that Dr. Julian found out how to make, is used in creams to treat insect bites, burns, and rashes. Corticosteroids are used topically to stop inflammation in different parts of the body.
Dr. Julian’s invention of these processes helped future scientists refine these and make them more efficient. They also served as a base for extracting other medicinal compounds from plants, not only steroids. He held over 130 patents and was the first African-American to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
Julian A.
Ada E. Yonath
ReplyDeleteAda Lifshitz, now Ada Yonath, was born in the British Mandate of Palestine, which is now Israel, on June 22, 1939, and is currently 74 years old. Yonath’s parents, Hillel and Esther LIfshitz, were Zionist Jews who immigrated to Palestine from Poland in 1933 before the establishment of Israel. Her father was a rabbi. They settled in Jerusalem, where they lived in cramped quarters with several other families, but despite their poverty, they managed to send Ada to a good school. Ada’s parents could not afford the tuition, so Esther gave math lessons to the other children in return for her daughter’s education. Yonath then attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s in biochemistry. She later achieved a Ph.D in X-Ray crystallography in the Weizmann Institute of Science. Yonath accepted postdoctoral positions in both the Carnegie Mellon University and MIT.
Ada Yonath is formally an Israeli crystallographer and is best known for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome. She focuses on mechanisms underlying protein synthesis using ribosomal crystallography, a research line developed twenty years prior that produced a lot of skepticism. Her work consisted of comparing the ribosomal structures in microorganisms and eukaryotes and see the effects of antibiotics on both. Her work goes beyond the structure of ribosomal subunits and asymmetrical ribosomes and even developed antibiotics targeting the ribosome and mechanisms drug resistance.
Yonath is a member of various biology and chemistry academies throughout the world. Her awards include the European Crystallography Prize (2000), the Israeli Prize for chemistry (2002), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2006), the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2007), was the first woman to win the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008), the Albert Einstein World Award for Science (2008), and the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, among many other awards, medals, and prizes. She was the first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize, the first Middle-Eastern woman to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences, and the first woman in 45 years to win the chemistry Nobel Prize.
Camila B.
Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet, the first woman to receive honorary membership of Britain's Royal Society. However, she was not scientist at first. She was born in Germany 1750. Her family was very musical, and when her older brother, William, moved to England as a musician, she went with him as a singer too. However, when he turns mid-30s, he started interested in astronomy and she was working his assistant. Often, she used Newtonian sweeper to study about the sky by herself. In fact, soon after she discovered new 14 nebulae, which includes NGC 205 and the companion to the Andromeda Galaxy. Throughout of her all amazed achievements, the biggest step to develop our science was the discovery of a comet in 1786. She was the first woman who discovered this even though she probably had disadvantage condition from sexual racist people. After this amazed achievement, King George III officially employed her as a William's assistant and he provided a salary which was the first woman in 1787.
ReplyDeleteAfter her brother died, she returned to Germany and continued the work on catalog of nebulae. Then, she received the Gold Medal f the Royal Astronomical Society. She died in 1848. On her tombstone, there is the inscription says, "The eyes of her who is glorified here below turned to the starry heavens."
Konomi U.
Lise Meitner was a physicist born in Vienna, Austria in 1878. She was the third of eight children of a Jewish family. Meitner got her education in the University of Vienna. She was accepted in 1901. There she discovered that her passion was physics even though the Noble Prize was denied was the chemistry one. In 1907, Meitner moved to Berlin to collaborate with Otto Hahn. They collaborated during thirty years. In March of 1938 the Nazi annexed Austria so Meitner fled to Sweden where she continued to secretly work with Hahn.
ReplyDeleteHahn would conduct the experiments and Meitner along with her nephew Otto Frisch would come up with the explanations because Hahn was not capable of doing it. These experiments supported the idea of nuclear fission. Hahn proceeded to publish their findings without giving credit to Meitner. She was denied any credit in this first paper for being a Jew because the Nazis were still active. In 1944 Hahn was awarded the Noble Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to splitting the atom. It is known that the Noble physics committee actively wanted to shut Meitner out of the discovery for being a woman. She died in 1968. Lise Meitner’s story is a clear case of sexism in the early 1900’s where she was denied the credit to a discovery where her work was crucial.
Carmen A.
Lloyd Augustus Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois on June 20th 1894. His grandmother had come to Illinois via the Underground Railroad as she was fleeing the colored discrimination of the South. Lloyd was raised by his parents, two high school graduates, who educated him strictly. This would later help him become a successful scientist. Lloyd was in the top of ten of his class of 250. The class only had four colored people including himself. He got scholarships from many Universities and chose Northwestern University. He majored in chemistry and in 1916 graduated with a BS degree. Later on, he did a graduate program at the University of Chicago. All in all, he was brilliant and well-educated.
ReplyDeleteHall is best known for his achievements in food chemistry. He worked in the following places: Junior chemist in Chicago Department of Health Laboratories, Senior chemist in Chicago Department of Health Laboratories, Chief Chemist in John Morrell Co., and President of Chemical Products Corporation in Chicago. Interesting to note, Lloyd kept ascending in ranks. He started out a junior chemist and rose all the way up to President.
Lloyd revolutionized the curing salts process for preserving meats. He used a “flash-driving” evaporating technique that is still used today. He developed a method using sodium chloride, nitrate, and nitrate crystals to preserve it. Next, he helped invent a process to prepare food antioxidants for food preservation. This is because when exposed to oxygen they go bad so he came up with a way to help preserve it longer. Thanks to his achievements, he kept food pure and palatable in WW2. Lloyd was a great chemist that achieved a lot for being a colored man in the US at the time.
http://www.csupomona.edu/~nova/scientists/articles/hall.html
Daniel M.
George Washington Carver was an agriculture chemist who made great advances in the industrial uses of specific crops as well as advancing the crop rotation system. He did all of this as an african american who was actually a slave.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Washington Carver was born into slavery in 1865. His parents were purchased earlier by a German-American for a paltry $700. George was the only of 10 children who didn't die prematurely. Once slavery was abolished, his former slaves raised him. At the time, blacks were still not allowed in Public schools, and George was taught by his former owners until he left to a school specifically for blacks. There he met a women, Mariah Watkins, who inspired him but after he witnessed a black man being lynched by a group of whites, he decided to leave. He attended many schools and ended up graduating in Kansas. The next challenge he faced was college. After being accepted on paper to Highland College, when he got there, he was rejected because of his race. Later, he was accepted into Iowa State as the only black man in the Agriculture school. There, he completed his Bachelor of Science. Later in Tuskegee Institute, George completed his most famous discoveries.
As far as his advancements go, George discovered a number of alternate crops for cotton. He found industrial uses for crops such as peanuts and soy beans. After his discoveries, George was presented with many awards. Amongst them, his most famous was the Spingarn award.
It is clear the George Carver overcame great adversity and through these adversities, his advancements in agriculture chemistry are even more remarkable.
Name please? .....
DeleteAnna Jane Harrison
ReplyDeleteAnna Jane Harrison really does the name Anna proud. In 1978 Anna was announced the first ever leader of the American Chemical Society (ACS). She was known for great things such as her devotion for teaching.
Anna Harrison was not always a big name in the chemistry world. Born on a farm in missouri few would have imagined she would have ended up working as a chemistry teacher in Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Her interest in science first sparked up when they began to do scientific work in her elementary school about caterpillars.
Anna harrison used spectroscopy to investigate the molecular structures of various compounds.
ANNA VDL
Marie Maynard Daily was born on April 16, 1921 in Queens, New York. She showed a profound interest in chemistry from an early age, probably inspired by her father’s love for this area of study. She graduated magna cum laude in 1942 from Queens College with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She then pursued her graduate studies in both Columbia and New York University. Throughout her academic and professional career, Marie overcame many obstacles due to racial and gender discrimination. She made history in 1947 as the first African American female to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry.
ReplyDeleteMarie’s professional career was spent leading research projects and teaching at various institutions of higher education. She is known for her groundbreaking advancements in the study of cells, proteins, and mechanics of the heart. Marie helped clarify the effects of cholesterol on the heart, and the functioning and storing of proteins in the human body, among other things. Daily was a professor at Howard University in D.C, Columbia, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement in 1986.
Marie was also committed to helping minority students in their pursuing of opportunities in the world of medicine and science. In 1988, she established a scholarship fund for African Americans in Queens College. Daly died on October 28, 2003 in New York City.
Jaime M.
Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. Marie was the youngest of five children and her parents were both teachers. Her father taught physics and math and her mother was headmistress at a girl’s school. She received a general education in a local school and some scientific training from her father. She moved to Paris in 1891. She studied at the Sorbonne, where she gained Licentiateships in Physics and Mathematical Sciences. She met Pierre Curie, a Professor in the School of Physics, in 1894 and the next year they got married. She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne and she later earned her Doctor of Science Degree in 1903. When her husband died in 1906 she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences. She was the first woman that ever held that position. In addition, she was appointed as the Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.
ReplyDeleteMarie Curie and her husband spent a lot of time in the laboratory investigating pitchblende. They discovered that there were two new elements in pitchblende, which meant they had discovered two new elements for the periodic table. One element is called polonium and the other is called radium. They came up with the term “radioactivity” to describe elements that gave off strong rays. In 1903, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in radiation. Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded the prize. Soon after, doctors found out that radiology could help with curing cancer. In 1911, Marie Curie also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering two new elements. She was the first person to be awarded two Noble Prizes. Marie Curie later died on July 4, 1934, due to overexposure to radiation.
Daniela F.
Charles Martin Hall was an American chemist. He was born on December 6th 1863. Hall began his education at home. He was taught to read from an early age by his mother and soon found chemistry very interesting. He and his family moved to Oberlin, Ohio in 1873. There, he spent three years at the local school of Oberlin and a year at the Oberlin Academy. Along these years, he had already found in chemistry a passion. It is said that he practiced several experiments in the kitchen and the woodshed attached to his house. In 1880 he joined the Oberlin local college. He was encouraged to be a scientist by Frank Fanning Jewett, a famous professor.
ReplyDeleteHe first attempted unsuccessfully to produce aluminum from clay by smelting with carbon in contact with charcoal and potassium chlorate. He later investigated cheaper methods to produce aluminum chloride, also unsuccessfully. After years of many more investigations, Hall was considered the American foundator of aluminium.
Hall became one of Oberlin ´s College ´s most prominent representatives. He has been honored a statue of him made by aluminium. It currently sits on the second floor of Oberlin ´s new science center. He also won the Perkin medal, which is the best waward in American industrial chemistry, in 1911.
Diego M - C
Marie Daly was born on April 16th 1921 in New York. She was born into an education-oriented family and she quickly got her B.S. and M.S. in chemistry at New York University and Queens College. Soon after, she enrolled at Columbia University as a doctoral student. There she met Dr. Mary Caldwell who would be a mentor to her in the future. She was known for her research on starch enzyme and amylase. When she graduated from Columbia University in 1947 she became the first African-American Woman in the U.S. to earn a ph.D. in chemistry. She became a role model for other African-American woman pursuing science during a time of great racial and gender bias to pursue chemistry. Furthermore, she developed programs to increase the enrollment of minority students in medical schools.
ReplyDeleteAfter receiving her Ph.D, she taught for two years at Howard University. Following a grant from the American Cancer Society to support her postdoctoral research, she joined Alfred E. Mirsky (a pioneer in molecular biology) at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. There, she worked on the composition and metabolism of components of the cell’s nucleus for seven years. Moreover, she taught biochemistry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and became a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement.
Irem G.
Gertrude B. Elion
ReplyDeleteMany female scientists throughout the past have not be accredited for there merits and honors, as people lived in a very sexist environment.
Gertrude Ellion was born on January 23, 1918 in New York. She admired her grandfather, who died of cancer. This ignited gertrude´s passion for medicine and science. She later graduated from Hunter College in 1937 with a medicine degree.
She started working as a lab asssitant and a high school science teacher. She later worked with George Hitchings in a pharmaceutical company. During her time in the pharmaceutical company she invented many things, but the most well known are Purinethol for leukimia, and Zovirax for oral herpes.
In 1988 Elion received the Nobel Prize for Medicine, in 1991 she also received the National Medal of Science. And finally in 1997 she received the MIT Lifetime Achievement Award. She died in 1999.
Gertrude B. Elion
Ignacio P.B
Mario Molina (Ciudad de Mexico 1943). Coming from a very good family of diplomats, Mario did his Upper School in Switzerland and then entered the Facultad de Quimica de la UNAM to study chemical engineering. After graduating he went to Friburgo University investigating polymerization kinetics. He then earned a doctorade degree in Berkley.
ReplyDeleteHe was a pioneer in the research of the hot atom chemistry. This is the study of chemical properties of atoms with excess translational energy owing to radioactive processes. This led to the research of chrloflourocarbons (CFCs). He and another chemist tried CFCs might be destroyed in the lower atmosphere. CFCs released did not decay by other processes and continued to rise until destroyed by solar radiation. Thanks to this laws regulated the amount of CFCs released to protect the ozone layer.
He won the Nobel Prize in 1995, the NASA medal of Exceptional Scientific Advancement and the United Nations Environmental Programme Global Award. In 2013, Barack Obama gave him the Medal of Freedom.
Alex P.
Carolyn R. Bertozzi did her undergraduate degree from Hardvard in 1988 and she then later got her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1993 in US Berkley. She began to do work at UCSF having to do with cellular immunology when she later joined the US Berkeley faculty in 1996. She is currently a professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkley, she is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
ReplyDeleteHer research focuses on the disciplines of chemistry and biology and the cell surface of glycosylation pertinent to disease states. She profiles the changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and exploiting this information for the development of diagonistics and therapeutic approaches. She has been awarded with many awards and recognitions of her work. She was elected as a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Her awards include awards from: Lemelson-MIT, Whistler Award, Ernst Schering Prize, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry ect.
Vera S.
Patricia Bath
ReplyDeletePatricia Era Bath was born in November 4, 1942 in Harlem, New York (she is 71 nowadays.) She is an afro-american ophthalmologist, inventor and academic. She has been important for woman and african-americans in different areas.
Prior to Bath, no woman had served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology or been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center . Before her, no african-american had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no african-american woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Centre. Bath is the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. She invented a Laserphaco Probe that is used to treat cataracts. She is holder of four patents and she is also the founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington D.C.
Arturo S.
Ruth R. Benerito was born in New Orleans in 1916. She completed high school at age 14 and a year later she entered Sophie Newcomb College. Later, she went to Tulane University where she earned a degree in chemistry. She graduated during the Great Depression and hoped to do research, but jobs were scarce and for a time she had to teach at local schools in Jefferson Parish, west of New Orleans, before making her name as a research chemist.
ReplyDeleteThen, Benerito went to Bryn Mawr, and back to Newcomb where she taught chemistry while researching advanced quantitative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics. While working as a teacher, Benerito took night classes to earn her master's degree from Tulane University. During World War II she taught college classes, and she earned her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago when the war ended. She married Frank Benerito in 1950 and went to work at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture in New Orleans.
In later years, while she was researching cotton fibers, Benerito taught classes part-time at Tulane University and at the University of New Orleans. She retired from the USDA in 1986 but continued to teach part-time at Tulane and the University of New Orleans. Benerito is most famous for her invention of more durable and wrinkle-free fiber.
Karen D.
Stephanie Louise Kwolel is an american chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide better known as Kevlar. She was born in New Kingston, Pennsylvania. She was born in 1923, Stephanie got her interest science from her father who was a naturalist by advocation and died when she was 10 years old, and she got her love for fashion from her mother. She graduated from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College with a degree in Chemistry and planned on becoming a doctor. She began working for DuPonts Buffalo, New York Facility where she discovered Kevlar. Kevlar is a synthetic fiber of high tensile strength, it is used in creating boats, cars, tires and bulletproof armour.
ReplyDeleteIn 1986 Stephanie retired as a research associate for DuPont,even though she still consults for him and for the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences. In 1995 she became the fourth women to be added to the National Inventors Wall of Fame and in 1996 she recieved the National Medal of Technology, in 2003, she was added to the National Womens Hall of Fame.
Camila M
Stephanie Louise Kwolel is an american chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide better known as Kevlar. She was born in New Kingston, Pennsylvania in 1923, Stephanie got her interest science from her father who was a naturalist by advocation and died when she was 10 years old, and she got her love for fashion from her mother. She graduated from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College with a degree in Chemistry and planned on becoming a doctor. She began working for DuPonts Buffalo, New York Facility where she discovered Kevlar. Kevlar is a synthetic fiber of high tensile strength, it is used in creating boats, cars, tires and bulletproof armour.
ReplyDeleteIn 1986 Stephanie retired as a research associate for DuPont,even though she still consults for him and for the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences. In 1995 she became the fourth women to be added to the National Inventors Wall of Fame and in 1996 she received the National Medal of Technology, in 2003, she was added to the National Womens Hall of Fame.
Camila M
George Washington Carver was born on a Missouri farm near Diamond Grove (now called Diamond), Newton County in Marion Township, Missouri. He received a B.S. from the Iowa Agricultural College in 1894 and a M.S. in 1896. He became a member of the faculty of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in charge of the school's bacterial laboratory work in the Systematic Botany department. His work with agricultural products developed industrial applications from farm products, called chemurgy in technical literature in the early 1900s. His research developed 325 products from peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes, and 75 products derived from pecans. He moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 1896 to accept a position as an instructor at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and remained on the faculty until his death in 1943. His work in developing industrial applications from agricultural products derived 118 products, including a rubber substitute and over 500 dyes and pigments, from 28 different plants. He was responsible for the invention in 1927 of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans, for which three separate patents were issued.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Washington Carver was honored by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in July 14, 1943 dedicating $30,000 for a national monument to be dedicated to his accomplishments. The area of Carver's childhood near Diamond Grove, Missouri has been preserved as a park, with a bust of the agricultural researcher, instructor, and chemical investigator. This park was the first designated national monument to an African American in the United States. George Washington Carver was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Simpson College in 1928. He was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1923, which is given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of colored People. The Spingarn Medal is awarded to the black person who has made the greatest contribution to the advancement of his race. Carver died of anemia at Tuskegee Institute on January 5, 1943 and was buried on campus beside Booker T. Washington.
Byung H
Ruth R. Benerito was born in New Orleans on January 12th 1916 and raised there. Even though she lived in an age where girls did not usually get a higher education her father made sure his daughters received the same education available to boys. Benerito completed high school at 14 and with 15 entered Sophie Newcomb College. She then went to Tulane University where she got her degree in chemistry. Due to the fact that she graduated during the Great Depression she had to teach at local schools in Jefferson Parish since jobs were scarce and she therefor could not do the research she hoped to do until later on.
ReplyDeleteShe went to Bryn Mawr and then back to Newcomb where she researched quantative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics at the same time as teaching chemistry. During the time that she worked as a teacher Benerito took night classes to get her master’s degree from Tulane University. During the Second World War she taught college classes and got her doctorate in physical chemistry after the war from the University of Chicago. After marrying Frank Benerito in 1950 she went to work at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center of the US department of Agriculture in New Orleans. This is where she ended up spending most of her career.
In her later years Benerito taught classes part time at Tulane University and at the University of New Orleans while she was researching cotton fibers. Even though she retired from the USDA in 1986 she continued to teach part time at Tulane and the University of New Orleans. At the end of her career she help 55 patents, the most famous of which was her invention of more durable and wrinkle free fiber.
Isabella B.
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who was born into slavery in Diamond Grove in 1864. Although his life did not start out quiet well being kidnapped and having his family die after being sold as slaves he managed to become a famous agriculture chemist. He rose to fame because of his techniques to develop cotton yields. Also he improved an agricultural extension program for Alabama and worked on developing various of applications for the new crops. However, it was not easy for him to become famous for his works.
ReplyDeleteHis first obstacle came rolling in his life when he had to go to a college. He was accepted at Highland College, however, he got rejected since he was black. So instead of attending college he decided to work alone near Beeler. This decision became the opening of his success. His life changed little by little starting with $300 loan at a Bank for education. He started his learning life with art and piano. Then he was suggested to continue his education for his master's degree. Then his effort at the experiment station in plant pathology and mycology first gained him national recognition and respect. After graduation from Iowa State University he progressed with his famous experiments.
Diana K.
Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867. She received a general education in her early years, and some scientific training from her father. She was very interested in science and in 1891 she went to Paris to continue her studies at Sorbonne where she obtained Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. While being there she met Pierre Curie, a physics professor and married him in 1895. Continuing her career, she gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and after Pierre's death she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the first time a woman had held this position. With the help of the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel, Marie's research led into the isolation of polonium(Mme), by using methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues, that allowed them to be analyzed more carefully. During World War I she promoted the idea of using radium to aid the injured. She became an admiration by other scientists, she also became a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911. She received many awards in honor of her work, including a Nobel Prize for her work in radioactivity. Marie Curie Died in Savoy, France, July 4th 1934.
ReplyDeleteIlona P.
Marie Curie was born on November 7th, 1867 in Poland. She was also a physicist as well as a chemist, and she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1911 and also to become a professor at the University of Paris. She also won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1903, which was shared with her husband Pierre Curie, who was also a scientist. Her achievements included the Theory of Radioactivity, techniques of isolating radioactive isotopes, and she also discovered the two elements polonium and radium. Later, she founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw, which nowadays remain as major centers of medical research. During the World War I, she established the first military field radiological centers. She died on the 4th of July in 1934 in France. Her death was led by too much exposure to radiation during her X-ray experiments that eventually caused aplastic anemia.
ReplyDeleteMin C
Marie M. Daly was born in New York, on April 16, 1921. She was an African American who came from a family that strongly believed in the power of education. She entered into the New York University after graduating from Queens College in 1942 with honors. However, her lack of money conducted her to work as a lab assistant at her college to cover all the costs for getting a graduate degree in chemistry. After that, she enrolled at Columbia University in 1944, as a doctoral student. It was there where she met Dr Mary L. Caldwell, a renowned scientist who held the chemistry program, and developed new paths for women in chemistry. Daly studied how a human's body's chemicals helped digestion. She finished her doctorate in 1947, and became the first female African American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, Daly joined the American Cancer Society and also, a seven year research program at the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine, intrigued by the human's inner body's workings. There she examined how proteins are constructed in the body, until 1955, when she returned to Columbia, working closely with Dr. Quentin B. Deming on the causes of heart attacks. A few years later, she was relocated to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, where she recieved many honors, including induction into Phi Beta Kappa, as well as being tapped as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She retired from Albert Einstein College in 1986, and died in New York City on October 28, 2003.
Yeri C.
Hu had a bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaii and a PhD from University of Technology California in 1977, she conducted postdoctoral research into membrane biochemistry and immunology at the University of California.
ReplyDeleteIn her research, she classified autistic children into subgroups based on their Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised scores, and, as a result, found single nucleotide polymorphisms. Hu's research has demonstrated that levels of two proteins produced by genes which showed changes in DNA methylation were reduced in the brains of autistic children relative to controls. Therefore she has proposed that the use of drugs which block the chemical tagging of these genes may be a useful treatment for autism.
Hao C.
Irène Curie, born in Paris, September 12, 1897, was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and since 1926 the wife of Frédéric Joliot. After having started her studies at the Faculty of Science in Paris, she served as a nurse radiographer during the First World War. She became Doctor of Science in 1925, having prepared a thesis on the alpha rays of polonium. Either alone or in collaboration with her husband, she did important work on natural and artificial radioactivity, transmutation of elements, and nuclear physics; she shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1935 with him, in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements, which work has been summarized in their joint paper Production artificielle d'éléments radioactifs. Preuve chimique de la transmutation des éléments (1934).
ReplyDeleteIn 1938 her research on the action of neutrons on the heavy elements, was an important step in the discovery of uranium fission. Appointed lecturer in 1932, she became Professor in the Faculty of Science in Paris in 1937, and afterwards Director of the Radium Institute in 1946. Being a Commissioner for Atomic Energy for six years, Irène took part in its creation and in the construction of the first French atomic pile (1948). She was concerned in the inauguration of the large centre for nuclear physics at Orsay for which she worked out the plans. This centre was equipped with a synchro-cyclotron of 160 MeV, and its construction was continued after her death by F. Joliot. She took a keen interest in the social and intellectual advancement of women; she was a member of the Comité National de l'Union des Femmes Françaises and of the World Peace Council. In 1936 Irène Joliot-Curie was appointed Undersecretary of State for Scientific Research. She was a member of several foreign academies and of numerous scientific societies, had honorary doctor's degrees of several universities, and was an Officer of the Legion of Honour. She died in Paris in 1956.
Jean Frédéric and Irene Joliot-Curie had one daughter, Helene, and one son, Pierre.
Carlota L
In 1965, DuPont (a chemical company) was searching for new innovations that would allow them to save a life and Stephanie Kwolek was a great contributor.
ReplyDeleteKwolek was looking for synthetic material that could resist severe conditions so she focused mainly on fibers. Out of nowhere, she discovers that after dissolving the aramid polyamides in a solvent, they could be turned into strong fibers.The material invented was five times stronger than steel, it was light and it did not rust. In 1966, DuPont named the new material Kevlar.
This discovery allowed people to use the material for body armor, for the transmission of messages across the ocean to protect the fiber wire, to suspend bridges and it was also used as a protective material used in clothes. In 1944, Kwolek joined the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
- Blanca B.