In 1879, scientists at the University of Minnesota asked chemistry student Laura Linton to analyze rock samples that had been collected along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Her research identified a previously unknown mineral, and her professors named it “lintonite” in recognition of her work.
In 1960, during her first month at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey took a bold stance against inadequate testing and corporate pressure when she refused to approve release of thalidomide in the United States. The drug had been used as a sleeping pill and was later proven to have caused thousands of birth deformities in Germany and Great Britain.
Frances Arnold, PhD, is a biochemical engineer who pioneered how to harness evolution to create proteins, for which she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2018), becoming the first American woman to do so.
American biochemist who developed a groundbreaking procedure that led to a reliable tuberculosis test (TB test), used to detect the potentially deadly virus in infants, children and adults worldwide. She also contributed to the development of safety measures for intravenous drug therapy.
Nystatin, one of the first effective antifungal medicines, was discovered in 1950 by two women scientists: Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885–1975) and Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980)
Nystatin, one of the first effective antifungal medicines, was discovered in 1950 by two women scientists: Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885–1975) and Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980)
Mildred Cohn (1913–2009) was interested in how chemical reactions take place, that is, how the molecules of each reactant come apart and how their atoms reassemble themselves into new molecules, and the role that enzymes play in this process.
In 1965 Stephanie Kwolek created the first of a family of synthetic fibers of exceptional strength and stiffness. The best-known member is Kevlar, a material used in protective vests as well as in boats, airplanes, ropes, cables, and much more—in total about 200 applications.
In 1986 Susan Solomon provided the most conclusive evidence for the theory proposed 13 years earlier that CFCs could be destroying the protective layer of ozone in the earth’s upper atmosphere.
Seminal work published in 1912 by Leonor Michaelis (1875–1949) and Maud Leonora Menten (1879–1960), a German man and a Canadian woman, cast light on the reasons why enzymes are so efficient.