A Woman Who Broke the Gender Barriers in Science
“The Life and Legacy of Nobel Laureate Gertrude Belle Elion: Inventor of Medicines,” a presentation and discussion of the woman who won a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988, will take place on Tuesday, October 11, 4 p.m., at New York University’s Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, 3rd floor. Co-hosted by NYU Libraries Dean Carol Mandel and Tamar Schlick, NYU professor in chemistry, mathematics, and computer science, the event is free and open to the public. For further information, call 212.992.9018.
Speakers include documentary filmmaker Mary Ann Bella (The Legacy of Gertrude Elion, Inventor of Medicines) and Marty St. Clair, virologist, co-inventor of AZT, the world’s first HIV medicine, and currently head of clinical virology at GlaxoSmithKline.
A native New Yorker and NYU graduate in chemistry, Elion persevered for seven years before breaking through gender barriers that prevented women from entering scientific research. Her revolutionary medicines led to a cure for childhood leukemia, prevented organ transplant rejection, and gave the world its first effective treatment for gout and the first safe antiviral medicine.