A Woman to Celebrate: Gertrude Elion

For International Women’s Week, we will be highlighting a woman a day for the week of March 7-11. These women have contributed immensely to the way our world works today. 

Gertrude Elion was born in 1918 and grew up in the Bronx in New York City. She was an avid learner, loving all her courses so much that she had trouble deciding on a potential career path. At the age of 15, her grandfather died of cancer, which inspired Elion to pursue a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at Hunter College, hoping to find a cure for the disease. The stock market crash of 1929 bankrupted the Elion family, but luckily Hunter College was free. After graduating from Hunter College with high honours, she aimed to continue to graduate school. However, there was a lack of funding, especially for women, during the Great Depression.  

After working in a variety of jobs and saving money, Elion started her master’s degree at New York University. She worked during the day and pursued her research at night, obtaining a Master of Science degree in chemistry in 1941. Around this time, World War II had begun, which led to a shortage of chemists in industry. This opened career opportunities for many women in science. Elion landed a job in research at Burroughs Wellcome pharmaceutical company, as an assistant to Dr. George Hitchings. Through research with Hitchings, Elion was able to expand her research from organic chemistry to biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, immunology, and virology.  

The type of research she and Hitchings performed abandoned the “trial and error” approach of the past and instead focused on a logical and scientific approach to drug development. Elion studied the difference between healthy and unhealthy cells, specifically focusing on the role of nucleic acids in cell reproduction. Her goal was to study the nucleic acids in DNA and use this knowledge to stop tumors from growing. She and her team ended up developing two drugs to combat leukemia and kickstarted a new era of cancer research. In 1978, Elion had another breakthrough when she developed antiviral drugs, which targeted viruses without harming healthy cells. As a result of this discovery, drugs to treat herpes, Epstein-Barr, chickenpox, shingles, and AIDS were developed.  

Elion’s work in drug research has resulted in major scientific advancements and saved many lives. Her name appears on 45 patents for life-saving drugs. In 1988 Elion received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her approach to drug development, sharing the prize with Hitchings and James Black. Elion passed away at the age of 81 in 1999, yet her work continues to make an impact on the scientific community and saves lives every day. Her contribution to science has changed the way drugs are developed, making her impact long lasting.  

Check out our external links to learn more about Gertrude Elion from The Nobel Prize – Biographical, The Nobel Prize, American Chemical Society, and Biography.  

A Woman to Celebrate: Mariya Zerova

For International Women’s Week, we will be highlighting a woman a day for the week of March 7-11. These women have contributed immensely to the way our world works today. 

Mariya Zerova was born into a working-class family in Ukraine in 1902 and spent her childhood in Kyiv. She graduated from Mariinskaya secondary school with a silver medal in 1917 and went on the attend Kyiv Medical Institute. Unfortunately, Mariya fell ill with tuberculosis three years into her degree and subsequently left the institute. After her recovery, she pursued a degree in Biology from Kyiv University, graduating in 1924.

Mariya worked for a number of years as a secondary school teacher before pursuing research positions, going on to work at a number of institutes including the Ukrainian Institute of Rubber and Rubber-bearing Plants as well as the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany. Mariya contributed immensely to the understanding of fungi in her part of the world, discovering numerous new species of fungi and helping to develop techniques to identify different fungi growth phases. Notably, Mariya Zerova contributed to the understanding of fungal diseases on crops such as the rubber tree and beets. She also helped expand the body of knowledge on edible fungal species. Mariya published a number of books during her career including the Guide to the Identification of Fungi of Ukraine (1979).

Although Mariya worked as a botanist since the early 1930s, she didn’t defend her first thesis until 1942 and she waited until 1969 to defend her doctoral thesis. Mariya Zerova conducted a great deal of field work during her career and her collection of over 12 000 specimens can now be found at the National Herbarium of Ukraine.

Check out our external link to learn more about Mariya Zerova from Cyber Truffle.

A Woman to Celebrate: Sau Lan Wu

For International Women’s Week, we will be highlighting a woman a day for the week of March 7-11. These women have contributed immensely to the way our world works today. 

Dr. Sau Lan Wu was born in the early 1940s in Japanese occupied Hong Kong during World War II. She grew up in poverty while her mother fought for her to receive a good education. After graduating from school in Hong Kong, Wu applied to 50 different American colleges. She was accepted to Vassar College with a full scholarship in 1960, arriving in America with only $40. Initially, she wanted to become an artist but was inspired by science after reading about Marie Curie. At Vassar College, Wu obtained a Bachelor of Arts in physics. Afterwards, she was accepted to Harvard University where she was the only female in her cohort, going on to obtain her PhD. 

After graduate school, Wu received a research associate position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and began research in particle physics, working on a team with Samuel C. C. Ting. In 1974, this team discovered the J/psi particle, which was evidence of the existence of charm quarks, a type of elementary particle that makes up protons and neutrons. For this work, Samuel C. C. Ting won a Nobel prize in 1976. After this discovery, Sau Lan Wu started working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an associate professor. There, she led a research team that went on to discover gluons, an elementary particle that holds quarks together. In 2012, Sau Lan Wu was a group leader for the ATLAS experiment at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), leading to the discovery of the Higgs boson, another elementary particle. The Higgs boson is the elementary particle that gives tiny fundamental particles mass. This was a huge discovery as it was the missing component of the Standard Model of particle physics.  

Sau Lan Wu is currently the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a scientist at CERN. Her work as a particle physicist has confirmed the existence of three elementary particles, which is quite a feat. Sau Lan Wu’s name appears on over 1000 papers in physics and she has contributed to many important studies in particle physics during her academic career. She is one of the most important particle physicists and has made revolutionary discoveries. Given her strength, resilience, perseverance, and dedication, she is truly a role model for women in STEM. 

Check out our external links to learn more about Sau Lan Wu from: American Institute of Physics, Quanta Magazine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Massive Science.  

A Woman to Celebrate: Katherine Johnson

For International Women’s Week, we will be highlighting a woman a day for the week of March 7-11. These women have contributed immensely to the way our world works today. 

Katherine Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918. She was brilliant with numbers and soared through her schooling, attending high school by age 13. She then enrolled in the historically-black West Virginia State College where she studied mathematics and French. She was mentored by W. W. Schiefflin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. In 1937, she graduated with highest honors and began a teaching career. In 1939, she was one of three handpicked black students to integrate West Virginia University’s graduate school. She quit teaching to pursue the mathematics program but sadly, it was not a welcoming environment, and she decided to leave and start a family. Once her daughters got older, she resumed teaching, but in 1953 she began working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) Langley laboratory.  

Working at NACA’s (now NASA’s) Langley laboratory, Katherine was one of the “human computers”. She became an integral member of the Space Task Group where she analyzed and calculated trajectory paths by hand, working towards the goal of sending someone to space and back. Katherine and engineer Ted Skopinski actually coauthored a report on the equations describing orbital spaceflight and landing. This was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division was credited as an author. When it came time for the first crewed mission to orbit around the Earth, NASA had begun using electric computers, yet the mission was not given the go-ahead until Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory path by hand, to double check. Later in her career she performed calculations for the Apollo 11 trip to the moon, authored / coauthored 26 research reports, and worked on the Space Shuttle and Earth Resources Technology Satellite.  

Katherine Johnson worked for NASA for 33 years and was a pioneer for BIPOC women in STEM fields. She passed away in 2020, at the age of 101. The number of barriers she broke through is an inspiration to all, and her impacts to her field are long lasting. She has received numerous awards for her work; most notably, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 for her contributions. Additionally, she was one of the women who was profiled in the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race as well as the movie Hidden Figures.  

Check out our external links to learn more about Katherine Johnson from NASA, NPR, and Biography.

A Woman to Celebrate: Katia Krafft

For International Women’s Week, we will be highlighting a woman a day for the week of March 7-11. These women have contributed immensely to the way our world works today.

Katia Krafft smiles for the camera in front of an erupting volcano.

Katia Krafft was born Catherine Conrad, on April 17^th 1942 and spent her childhood in Guebwiller, France. At the age of 17, after seeing the movie “The Devil’s Blast”, she became fascinated with volcanoes.   

For her 18^th birthday, she visited Mount Etna, where she took pictures, collected samples, and gathered intel on the volcano. After many years of nagging, her parents finally made a deal with her: she could be a volcanologist if (and only if) she finished a university degree. She then attended the University of Strasbourg, graduating with a degree in geology. While studying there, she met her husband, Maurice Krafft, who shared a similar interest in volcanoes.  

She began her volcanic research by first visiting Iceland, where 90% of mountains are volcanic. There, she analyzed gas samples, developing a chromatographic device that separated volcanic gases. She also documented volcanic eruptions, experiencing them in person. Katia began writing books about her experiences and discoveries, which became impactful around the world. She was recognized for her courage, as she would bravely climb to the very edge of the volcano’s opening in order to acquire the greatest amount of footage possible.  

Katia used her knowledge to advocate for volcanic eruption safety, educating many countries about the importance of volcanic monitoring and evacuation. She also made a detailed documentary with the aid of UNESCO after a volcanic eruption killed 23 000 people in Colombia. Over her entire career, she visited over 150 volcanoes and she and her husband, Maurice, were nicknamed the “Volcano Devils”.

At the age of 49, Katia passed away along with the rest of her team while filming the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan on June 3^rd, 1991. Over the course of 23 years, she supplied much of the information we know today about the activity of volcanoes, including their formation as well as their periods of dormancy.  

Her legacy still lives on through the Krafft medal, which is awarded every 4 years by the “International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior”. A memorial fund has also been established in Maurice and Katia Krafft’s names, collecting donations for educating on the hazards of active volcanoes in countries of high volcanic risk.  

Check out some of our external links to learn more about about Katia Krafft from Zibberish and Women’s Activism NYC .

Katia and her husband, Maurice Krafft

IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast

Dal WIC is excited to be hosting this year’s IUPAC Women’s Breakfast at Dalhousie! The event will be taking place virtually at 10:30 AM AST on Wednesday February 16th, 2022.

The IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast is an annual event that takes place at locations across the world, celebrating and supporting women chemists. At this year’s Dalhousie event, we will hear from some talented women in our chemistry department. Afterwards we will be hosting trivia on chemistry, women scientists, and related topics. Attendees are welcome to participate or just sit back and learn some interesting facts!

If you are affiliated with the Dalhousie community and would like to join, please contact us at wic@dal.ca

Picture a Scientist Documentary Screening

Dal WIC is excited to announce that we will be hosting a screening of Picture a Scientist! This documentary explores the inequities faced by three women scientists: biologist Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Willenbring.

This screening is for those in the Dalhousie community and will take place at 6:00 PM on Thursday October 21st! Due to limited space, all attendees must register. Please contact us at wic@dal.ca for details.

Dal WIC Annual General Meeting

Dal WIC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held virtually on Monday, September 20th at 11:30 AM (ADT). If you are a member of the Dalhousie community, please join us to:

• Learn about the work that Dal WIC does
• Give your input on our annual plan for future initiatives and events
• Hear about the various ways you can get involved with our group

Email us at wic@dal.ca to obtain details on how you can join!

Join us at Dalhousie’s Belong Speaker Series

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting one of the talks for Dalhousie’s Belong Speaker Series: Breaking Barriers. This lecture series features many budding researchers and aims to increase the visibility of BIPOC folks in STEM fields. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the speaker’s research and can join the conversation during our Q&A period.

Join us on Friday, August 13th at 1:00 (ADT) for Dr. Saurabh Chitnis’ talk Functional Molecules and Materials via Geometric Thinking (you can join the virtual event here). We encourage everyone from across STEM fields to come learn something about chemistry and inclusion!

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