Dr. Gerty Theresa Cori, née Radnitz...

Image Source: NobelPrize.org

Topics: Biochemistry, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Metabolism, Nobel Prize, Physiology, STEM, Women in Science

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947

Born: 15 August 1896, Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)

Died: 26 October 1957, St. Louis, MO, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

Prize motivation: "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen"

Field: biochemistry, metabolism, physiology

Prize share: jointly to Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Theresa Cori, née Radnitz "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" and the other half to Bernardo Alberto Houssay "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar".

Note: Dr. Cori's biography was an interesting read. Considering it was penned by the Nobel committee at the end of the 1940's; women were just a few years beyond the Suffrage Movement, and society was still - in general - not nearly as advanced socially or sociologically on cultural or gender issues. I found and give reference to a biography more about her than... well, you'll see what I mean in a moment.

Carl Ferdinand Cori was born in Prague on the Marine Biological Station in Trieste, and it was here that the young Carl spend his childhood. He received an early introduction to science from his father and this was stimulated on summer visits to the Tyrol, to the home of his grandfather, Ferdinand Lippich, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague. He studied at the German University of Prague to study medicine. During World War I, he served as a lieutenant in the Sanitary Corps of the Austrian Army on the Italian front; he returned to University, where he studied with his future wife, Gerty, to graduate Doctor Vienna and a year as assistant in pharmacology at the position as biochemist at the State Institute for the Study of appointed Professor of Pharmacology at the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, where he later became Professor in Biochemistry.

The Cori's have collaborated in most of their research work, commencing in their student days and stemming from their mutual interest in the preclinical sciences. Their first joint paper resulted from an immunological study of the complement of human serum.

"Gerty Cori - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 28 Mar 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1947/cori-gt-facts.html

Changing The Face of Medicine: Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori, first woman in America to receive a Nobel Prize in Science