Gertrude Belle Elion was an American biochemist
and pharmacologist. Gertrude attended Hunter College and NYU.
She was unable to obtain a graduate research position because
she was a woman. She never did obtain a formal Ph.D., but
she was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from George Washington University.
Gertrude worked as a lab assistant and did
not let the fact that she was unable to obtain her Ph.D. bring
her down. She developed a multitude of new drugs, using innovative
research methods that would later lead to the development
of the AIDS drug AZT. Some of Elion's inventions include:
the first treatment for leukemia, a treatment for malaria,
treatment for meningitis and treatments for a few other diseases.
Gertrude has become a model for all women.
She received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1988, the National
Medal of Science in 1991 and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement
Award in 1997. In 1991 she became the first woman to be inducted
into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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