March 8, 2021
These famous female doctors defined the social and racial prejudices that discouraged certain people from practicing science.
Without their research and contributions, millions of lives would not have been positively impacted and saved. Below is a list of the top 3 from this letsgetsciencey.com article:
- Dr. Jane C. Wright: Dr. Wright is one of the most famous black women in medicine. One of her biggest accomplishments was the development of chemotherapy to treat cancer in the 1940s.
- Dr. Gertrude B. Elion: Through revolutionary new methodology for testing cells, she played a major role in the development of a drug that changed childhood leukemia from a death sentence to one that many children survive. She was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1988 for her work in Physiology or Medicine.
- Dr. Gerty Cori: Dr. Cori was born in Prague into a Jewish family in 1896. She and her husband moved to the United States, in part, due to increasing anti-semitism. She and her husband identified the enzyme that facilitates the decomposition of glycogen into glucose, which served as the basis for future treatment options for diabetes. She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in science (third woman overall).
The article goes on to detail other woman’s achievements including the discovery of the Nerve Growth Factor, anti-aging creams and serum’s, the Apgar Score used to evaluate newborns, treatments of childhood cancers and founding of the Ronald McDonald House, and many others.
Quaker values speak of seeing and acknowledging the Light within every person. Knowing that there is the spark of the divine in each person. And recognizing that every person has something to offer. These woman overcame many challenges to let their Light shine and to use the gifts that the Divine gave them.
- How might you encourage someone’s Light to shine through so their gifts to the world are realized?
- What spark is within you that might help transform someone’s life and make the world a better place?
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