Rosalyn Yalow RIP
Dear Friends of Women in Science,
Sonia Fuentes just sent me a copy of the obituary of an important woman scientist. Last year I wrote about Rosalyn Yalow (here, http://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/women-in-science/rosalyn-yalow-17014433) and her remarkable life. From when she was 8 years old, she had known she wanted to be a scientist because of the beauty of the logic and how it could explain the world. Her love of science was stimulated by a teacher at Walton High School in the Bronx and by reading a biography of Eve Curie. The obituary in the New York Times mentioned that another woman who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Gertrude Elion, also attended that high school, which was closed recently for being a failing school.
Yalow became a medical physicist but had to beg and then volunteer in order to be hired. She was an inventor of the radio-immune assay, which I would call chemistry. But she was the second woman so recognzied when she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1977. Her long-time male collaborator Solomon A. Berson was deceased and we can only speculate as to whether he would have been recognized without her, had he not been ineligible (posthumous awards are not allowed by the Nobel Foundation).
I'm in the process of writing something for this forum about women who took on the FF (first female) roles in society, and she was definitely in that category. A New York native, she went to Hunter College and was their first physics major. Graduate schools disdained her application, one Midwestern school writing, ""She is from New York. She is Jewish. She is a woman." They thought she would never get a job as a woman in physics. Interestingly, famous author Jean Auel talked at the East of Eden Writers Conference some years ago about being a college graduate with a major in physics after years off raising her family, and being told women could not get a job in physics. The Clan of the Cave Bear and the following novels show evidence of her scientific approach. But Yalow was able to go on. She told an interviewer, "They told me that as a woman, I'd never get into graduate school in physics, so they got me a job as a secretary at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and promised that, if I were a good girl, I would take courses there." It is the medical school associated with Columbia University, so she could hear top-drawer science there for sure, but it was not ever easy for her.
World War II changed everything, and she was finally admitted to graduate school at University of Illinois. She received her doctorate in nuclear physics in 1945. She taught at Hunter College and volunteered at Columbia to get a chance to do research. She began to work at Veteran's Administration Hospital, as a part-time researcher in 1947. She worked full time in 1950 and began her 22-year collaboration with Dr. Berson.
The sensitive tests she developed showed that diabetics had antibodies to insulin, initially a finding contrary to what the field thought should be true, so her publications were resisted at first.
I'm happy to say Yalow was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975 (before the Nobel Prize). At the time of her death, she was Senior Medical Investigator Emeritus at the Bronz Veterans Medical Center and the Solomon A. Berson distinguished professor-at-large at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Serge,
Interesting thoughts. I don't think there are any wrong choices here, and you have interesting reasons for yours. If the woman is selected as dean, I'd encourage you to drop back by this forum and let us know. I, for one, am pulling for her. But as a former dean, I know her science may have to take more of a back seat if she is selected. She can inspire many, to partly make up for it.
cheers,
Laura
Correction
We should NOT belittle their achievement
Sorry from a french speaking person. Désolé
I chose # 4 answer because of the social impact of her research. I was delighted to see that the majority was impressed by her resilience. We should go beyond paternity or maternity because these are personal choices that imply others aspects of life pathway. Some people have chosen not to be parents for different reasons. We should belittle their achievement.
Progress has been made and will continue. We must recognize these pioneers ( RY) but context is different and it is a work in progress. No need to be a noble prize ( ouf ! ) to raise at decisive leaderships position.
As an example. At the faculty of medicine of Montreal ( over 150 years of history) University an ophtalmologist woman has been suggested as the dean. The authorities' confirmation is due June 15 th 2011.
We all hope for the best.
It's great to get more about this amazing woman. She had so many discouraging signals and just kept on going. Isn't there a biography of her, Laura? I know you had trouble finding one of someone married with children, and maybe her life was just too discouraging to use, but she did have that balance going for her.
I think I worry more about family balance issues so I had to pick that one above. I'm sad for women scientists like Marguerite Vogt who had no companion to share their triumphs and tragedies with, although she sounds like she had wonderful friends to the end.
I'm glad you posted this because I had missed it before and didn't realize she was a Nobel laureate from way back who also was married and raised kids. Thanks for the great info!
Dear Susan,
Thanks for posting the link to the Marguerite Vogt page. I did not know her and I wish I had. I was in La Jolla in 1968-9 but down at Scripps, then in the Village, and doing microbiology with Frank Young, not development. I got up to Salk for lectures and sherry from time to time and recall it had few women in evidence. Perhaps I saw her. She was a very impressive person! Although she wished to just focus on science, I do wish she had received more recognition during her life time.
best,
Laura
There are so many women from the early days who were essentially rendered invisible. At least Yalow was finally recognized. We really are standing on the shoulders of giants.
My friend Marguerite Vogt, who died in 2007, was another such a one. Near the end of her life, I heard people say "We really should get her into the NAS" but of course they never did. She knew she'd been overlooked and treated unfairly but such was her passion for science that she kept going without drawing attention to it. It's important we remember the trailblazers, which is why I wrote about her on a web page, here:
http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~forsburg/vogt.html
