HIST 9 |
| There are several points in my life in which serendipity played a huge part. I've always envied those chemists who wanted to be a chemist ever since they received a chemistry set for Christmas. On the other hand, I started college in September, 1941, expecting to be a Latin/English teacher. And when my housemother asked if I would switch my major to chemistry, I just said “OK.” Serendipity Number 1. As a senior 3 years later, I applied for a research fellowship at Carnegie-Mellon Institute. When I didn't hear from them, I accepted a position as a control chemist at Miles Laboratories, and I started the day after graduation. Just about two weeks later, Carnegie -Mellon wrote that I'd been accepted for the fellowship. Serendipity Number 2. I had been talking to my boss at Miles about getting into research instead of boring quality control, so when Miles started a biochemistry research section, I interviewed with the biochemistry head, and two years later, I married him. Serendipity Number 3. The rest of my story is how the US diagnostics industry was begun in Elkhart, Indiana, by Al Free and a hundred or so other scientists, including me, and my role in developing the urine tests for diabetes. |
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Women Chemists in the National Inventors' Hall of Fame: Telling Their Stories
1:30 PM-4:45 PM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Marriott Convention Center -- Fulton, Oral
Division of the History of Chemistry |