Diversity in Chemistry
In 1965, Stephanie Kwolek made an unexpected discovery that led to the creation of synthetic fibers so strong, not even steel bullets could penetrate them.
That discovery made way for Kwolek’s invention of industrial fibers that today protect and save thousands of lives.
Most notable among these is Kevlar®, a heat-resistant material that’s five times stronger than steel, but lighter than fiberglass.
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Source: Stephanie Kwolek (1923–2014) (American Chemical Society). https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/women-scientists/stephanie-kwolek.html.
Diversity in Chemistry
Norbert Rillieux pioneered an important sugar processing with the invention of the multiple effect evaporator.
Rillieux’s invention made it possible to produce sugar at a lower cost and with reduced man power.
The Rillieux evaporator is still used today in sugar production in addition to the production of condensed milk, soap, and glue.
Source: Norbert Rillieux (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Rillieux; American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks. Norbert Rillieux and a Revolution in Sugar Processing. http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/norbertrillieux.html.
Diversity in Chemistry
Source: Agnes Pockels (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Pockels.
Diversity in Chemistry
Maud Menten was among the first women in Canada to earn a medical doctorate.
In 1912, she published a paper that showed that the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction is proportional to the amount of the enzyme-substrate complex.
This relationship between reaction rate and enzyme–substrate concentration is known as the Michaelis–Menten equation.
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Source: Maud Menten (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Menten.
Diversity in Chemistry
The first Mexican-born scientist to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Mario Molina discovered the serious environmental threat posed by chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs).
Along with fellow chemist Sherwood Rowland, Molina found that CFCs—chemicals commonly used as refrigerants, and colloquially known as Freon—released into the atmosphere were contributing to ozone depletion.
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Source: 10 Game-Changing Hispanic Scientists You Didn’t Learn About In School- Mario Molina (Mental Floss). https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/86985/10-game-changing-hispanic-scientists-you-didnt-learn-about-school; Mario Molina (University of California-San Diego). https://www-chem.ucsd.edu/faculty/profiles/molina_mario_j.html.
Diversity in Chemistry
Dr. Charles Richard Drew broke barriers in a racially divided America to become one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.
His pioneering research and systematic developments in the use and preservation of blood plasma during World War II.
Drew aspired to continue training in transfusion therapy at the Mayo Clinic, but racial prejudices at major American medical centers barred black scholars from their practices.
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Source: Charles Richard Drew (American Chemical Society). https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/african-americans-in-sciences/charles-richard-drew.html.
Diversity in Chemistry
Mildren Cohn overcame gender and religious prejudice to leave a profound impact on biochemistry and biophysics.
Among the first scientists to apply electron spin and NMR to investigate metabolism.
She pioneered the use of NMR to determine how enzymes and other proteins behave during chemical reactions in the body.
Her are now widely practiced by other scientists to study metabolic processes at the molecular level.
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Source: Mildren Cohn (1913–2009) (American Chemical Society). https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/women-scientists/mildren-cohn.html.
Diversity in Chemistry
The young Yellapragada SubbaRow flunked out of two high schools in India until the death of his father caused him to buckle down to his studies.
He co-discovered phosphocreatine and ATP with Cyrus Fiske besides devising the colorimetric method for phosphorus estimation known as the Fiske-SubbaRow Method.
In 1940, he directed the research that led to the synthesis of folic acid, discovery of tetracycline, methotrexate, and diethylcarbamazine.
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Source: Yellapragada SubbaRow Biography (Infoplease). https://www.infoplease.com/biographies/science-technology/yellapragada-subbarow; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/te/2/24/Yellapragada_subbarao.jpg
Diversity in Chemistry
David Liu is leading the charge in conceiving improved versions of CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that is revolutionizing research.
His most notable advance is a new “base editor” that can swap a single nucleotide base, or letter, of DNA for another.
The invention opens the door to developing treatments for the thousands of genetic diseases caused by one small typo in DNA.
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Source: Inventor, chemist, and CRISPR craftsman: Inside David Liu’s evolution workshop (Chemical and Engineering News). https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/biotechnology/Inventor-chemist-CRISPR-craftsman-Inside/96/i16; David R. Liu (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_R._Liu
Diversity in Chemistry
Patsy Sherman was a 1952 alumnus of Gustavus Adolphus College
She was the co-inventor along with Samuel Smith of Scotchgard while an employee of the 3M corporation in 1952. An accidental spill of a fluorochemical rubber on an assistant’s tennis shoe was the beginning to the invention of the product.
Sherman holds 13 patents with Smith in fluorochemical polymers and polymerization processes.
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Source: Patsy O'Connell Sherman (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patsy_O%27Connell_Sherman.
Diversity in Chemistry
Edith Ellen Humphrey was a British inorganic chemist who carried out pioneering work in co-ordination chemistry at the University of Zurich under Alfred Werner.
She is thought to be the first British woman to obtain a doctorate in chemistry.
Humphrey was "the first of his students to succeed in preparing Werner's first new series of geometrically isomeric cobalt complexes, a class of compounds that were crucial in his development and proof of his coordination theory.
Source: Edith Ellen Humphrey (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Humphrey.
Diversity in Chemistry
Michelle Chang is a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her team uses the approaches of mechanistic biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology to address problems in energy and human health.
Her group creates new biosynthetic pathways in microbial hosts for in vivo production of biofuels from abundant crop feedstocks and pharmaceuticals from natural products or natural product scaffolds.
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Source: Meet Michelle Chang: Chemical Science Associate Editor (Royal Society of Chemistry). https://blogs.rsc.org/sc/2017/01/25/michelle-chang-chemical-science-associate-editor/?doing_wp_cron=1624552128.4113869667053222656250.
Diversity in Chemistry
The Cori Cycle — the process of sugar metabolism — is named after husband-and-wife team Gerty Theresa Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori (1896-1984).
They are responsible for helping us understand how cells use food and convert it to energy through a cyclical process in the muscles.
Their landmark carbohydrate research not only led to the development of treatments for diabetes, it also made them winners of the 1947 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
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Source: Gerty Theresa Cori (1896-1957) (American Chemical Society). https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/women-scientists/gerty-theresa-cori.html.
Diversity in Chemistry
Abigail Doyle is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University.
Her group identified catalytic cross-coupling reactions with styrenyl epoxides and aziridines as electrophiles.
She identified a novel ligand class that showed unique electronic properties to a transition metal catalyst for cross-coupling catalysis.
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Source: Abigail Doyle (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Doyle; Meet Abby (Princeton University). https://doyle.princeton.edu/abby/
Diversity in Chemistry
Faiza al-Kharafi has studied the impact of corrosion on engine cooling systems, distillation units for crude oil, and high temperature geothermal brines.
As an electrochemist, she has studied the electrochemical behavior of aluminum, copper, platinum, niobium, vanadium, cadmium, brass, cobalt, and low carbon steel.
Forbes magazine named her as one of "The 100 Most Powerful Women – Women To Watch In The Middle East" in 2005.
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Source: Faiza al-Kharafi (Kuwait-MIT Center). https://cnre.mit.edu/people/advisory-board/al-Kharafi.
Diversity in Chemistry
Barbara S. Askins is best known for her invention of a method to enhance underexposed photographic negatives.
Askins' method prompted improvements in the development of X-ray images.
This development was used extensively by NASA and the medical industry, and it earned Askins the title of National Inventor of the Year in 1978.
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Source: Barbara Askins (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Askins.