Rosalyn Yalow July 19, Second Woman and First American Born Woman to Receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Rosalyn’s Early Life and Education Born July 19, 1921 in New York, New York. Second of two children to Clara Zipper and Simon Sussman. Attended Walton High School where a chemistry teacher excited her interest in chemistry. Attended Hunter College where her focus switched from chemistry to physics. Graduated in January Received an offer of teaching assistant at the University of Illinois Physics department and was the only woman of the 400 members and the first since There she met Aaron Yalow who she married in she received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics.

University Involvement and Careers Accepted the position of an assistant engineer at Federal Telecommunications Laboratory, the only woman returned to Hunter to teach physics accepted a part-time position at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital while still teaching she joined the hospital full-time and also met Dr. Solomon A. Berson, with whom she worked for 22 years. At the hospital they developed radioimmunoassay which is used to measure tiny amounts of substances in the body that are otherwise too small to detect. Considered the most important development since the x-ray. Now is the Distinguished Service Professor at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Rosalyn and Aaron had two children, Benjamin and Elanna.

Accomplishments and Awards In 1977 Rosalyn received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Had Dr. Berson lived he would have also shared the award. Became the second woman ever and the first American-born woman to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Member of the National Academy of Sciences. Received the Scientific Achievement Award of the American Medical Association, Koch Award of the Endocrine Society, American College of Physicians Award for distinguished contributions in science, and several other awards. Also received numerous research awards. Received 54 honorary doctorates from universities all over the world and the US.

Sources “Rosalyn S. Yalow.” “Rosalyn Yalow.” spot.colorado.edu/~gamow/george/1987bio Yalow, Rosalyn. “Rosalyn Yalow- Autobiography.”