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Posted on: January 13, 2012
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Posted By: Laura Hoopes

M.E. Avery, Biomedical Pioneer, RIP

Aa Aa Aa
Hi friends of women in science,

The New York Times and the Harvard Crimson recently ran articles commemorating the life and work of M.E. Avery, known as Mel, who discovered that lack of surfactant was an important reason for premature babies' lack of success. Before her discovery, about 15,000 babies died with respiratory distress syndrome each year. Now, fewer than 1,000 die with this cause. Once she had defined the problem, in a series of brilliant papers beginning in 1959, Dr. Tetsuro Fujiwara in Japan developed a replacement surfactant that could be used to help these babies survive, publishing the first success in 1980.
Avery died at age 84, having left a legacy that has saved hundreds of thousands of prematurely born babies. She was the first woman to be appointed physician-in-chief at Children's Hospital Boston. Many credit her with much of the discipline of neotatology. The development of Neonatal Intensive Care Units nationwide depended heavily on her discovery. She was the first woman president of the Society for Pediatric Research and the first pediatrician to be president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
She received the highest research award in pediatrics in 2005, where her discovery was lauded as "the major advance in neotnatology in the last 50 years." Not very many people, let alone women, have won the National Medal of Science, but George W. Bush awarded it to her in 1991.
Before her years of fame, Avery was graduated summa cum laude in chemistry from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and went to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for the MD, where she was one of four women out of ninety in the program, completing the degree in 1952. Right away, she came down with tuberculosis. It took her two years to recover, during which time her lifelong obsession with lung function was planted firmly in her mind.
After her internship and residency, training at Harvard, and early teaching at McGill, she returned to Harvard and Children's Hospital in 1974. She never married.
Dr. Avery spoke her mind, working for abortion rights and telling the Harvard Crimson that doctors make too much money.
In an article about her National Medal of Science, the Harvard Crimson quoted another important pediatrician, "She's a fantastic woman who's accomplished a great deal," says Joseph D. Brain, Drinker professor of environmental physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "She's a really spectacular scientist, and a great role model."
Had you heard about her contributions?
cheers,
Laura
Comments
4  Comments  | Post a Comment
Community

Hi Amanda,
Yes, but it's not a government web site, it's on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Medal_of_Science_laureates

Let's hope Wikipedia's fundraising drive doesn't mean it's about to stop existing, just when it has become pretty credible.
cheers,
Laura

From:  Laura Hoopes |  January 13, 2012
Community

Hi Laura,
No, I hadn't heard of her. Is there a site where women who won the National Medal of Science can be found? Or do you just rely on news media to find them? I might like to refer my class to the lists and ask them to pick someone to write a short blog posting about.

From:  Amanda C |  January 13, 2012
Community

Hi Laura,
I think I heard about her in Chemistry class way back when, but I had forgotten the details. I'm sorry to hear she never married, but it's fairly time consuming to take care of babies in the NCU and probably she just couldn't have a life. Glad you did, though and wrote about it!

From:  Kate Real |  January 13, 2012
Community

Hi Laura,

I love these women you find and highlight. I never have heard anything about them, and I marvel that their accomplishments haven't been household words for us women in science. As usual, I bemoan the lack of visibility of women in science. We're past Marie Curie, people! Get over her and focus on the new women.

From:  Bethany I. |  January 13, 2012
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