Chemistry's Creative Women Nina Matheny Roscher The American University, Washington, DC 20016 Chemistry's creative women include the Garvan Medalists who represent a group of successful women scientists who mieht well serve as role models for students a t all levels. The ~ e h a la, national award given by the American Chemical Society to a woman for distinguished service to chemistry, and has been presented continuously since 1936 with the exception of the war vears ( 1 ) . since the second medal winner, Mary Engle Pennington, wasamong the first 12 women to join the American Chemical Society, the Garvan Medal can be generally recognized as spanning the time period of participation of American women in chemistry. It is important to recognize, however, that while the Garvan Medalists generally were trained as chemists, they practiced chemistry in the hroadest sense. A few have been chosen here to illustrate some of the ways a career in chemistry might develop: from part-time laboratory assistant to vice president or from a clinical laboratory to a consultant in warehouse construction. While many of the Garvan Medalists graduated from high school a t a vouna- age, - . their doctorates were not obtained correspondi&ly early. Particularly for the early Garvan Medalists, the difficultv of obtaining admission to a eraduate school often prevented them f r i m obtaining th& degrees as early as they might have wished. Generally speaking, the Garvan Medalists attended women's colleges and universities as undergraduates. Their graduate work was carried out, especiallyin the early days, at one institution in particular: The University of Chicago. This institution leads others in granting doctorates to the Garvan Medalists. Recent Garvan Medalists, however, are more likely to be products of a state universitv. This shift mav well reflect the fact that in such universitiks graduate teaching assistantships have become more readilv available for women. A reoien,of rht accrptanrr speeches of the (iarvan Mrdi~li s t i g r n ~ m l l vre\,eals either a trilmrr toa nde model. whether A t high school or college, or a tribute to an individual professor or family member who encouraged the medal winner. T h e majority of the married women attribute their continued success to the encouragement of their spouse, often a scientist who recognizes the sacrifices that need to he made in order to have a successful career. Four of the Garvan Medalists worked as a part of a team. The team may be very closely related in their professional work. such as Marv Feiser of Feiser and Feiser. Gertv Cori of Cori and Cori, or ~ o p h i Simmons a of Fruton and S;rnmons. Isahella Karle works in an area related to that of her husband hut does not generally publish with him. The male members of these teams are more widely recognized as they hold the position of prominence. Fruton and Feiser had extensive research reputations that were not contributed to by their coauthors. However, discussions with co-workers often serve to illustrate the contributions made by the women of the team. Two of the Garvan Medalists, Katherine Blodgett and Gerty Cori, received their graduate degrees in fields other than chemistry, though they were recognized for their contributions to chemistry. Many of the early scientific developments in the area of nutrition can be attributed to women, trained in chemical research, who entered the field primarily due to the lack of job opportunities elsewhere. 748
Journal of Chemical Education
Geriy T. Cori
Gertv T. Cori was the first Garvan Medalist to hold an MD, which she received from the German University Medical School in Prague in 1920. She is one of the few women chemists to have ieceived a Nobel Prize in Medicine which she shared with her husband Carl F. Cori and Bernard Alberto Houssay of Buenos Aires in 1947. The Coris were honored for their work on the enzymatic synthesis of glycogen (2). Mary Engle Pennington
Mary Engle Pennington, who received the Garvan Medal in 1940, had then been a member of the Society for 46 years and had been publishing research since 1896. Pennington worked in a variety of positions after receiving her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1895 a t the age of 23. She held fellowshipsat Pennsylvania and a t Yale prior to hecoming director of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1898. At this time she also served as chief of the Philadelphia Clinical Laboratory and as hacteriologist in charge of the Philadelphia Bureau of Health. This lead to her appointment as chief of the Philadelphia Food Research Laboratory of Chemistry and Bacteriology of the US Dept. of Agriculture in 1908. In 1919 she became manager of the research and development division of American Ralsa Comnanv , .(3). From 1923 until the end of her career she did ronsultation work and continued to write government bulletins. technical and magazine articles, and books in the areas of chemistry and bacteriology of foods and food processing. During World War 11, when she was in her lo's, she was called upon by the Quartermaster General to serve as a consultant on the design and construction of refrigerated warehouses, of cooking rooms, and in packaging and transportation for the War Shipping Administration (4).
.
Group Research at Mt. Holyoke The first Garvan Medalist, Emma Perry Carr, received her AS in 1905 and her PhD in 1910 from the University of Chicago. From 1913 until 1946 she was chairman of the department a t Mt. Holvoke. Csrr recognized the'difficulties in doing research a t a small undergraduate school. She started the research orogram a t ~ t . ~ o l y o with k e the concept that everyone i n t h e dspartment would work on the same problem. The research
