Mildred Cohn

Mildred Cohn (July 12, 1913 – October 12, 2009) was an American biochemist who furthered understanding of biochemical processes through her study of chemical reactions within animal cells. She was a pioneer in the use of nuclear magnetic resonance for studying enzyme reactions, particularly reactions of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). She received the nation's highest science award, the National Medal of Science, in 1982, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Early life Cohn's parents, childhood sweethearts Isidore Cohn and Bertha Klein Cohn, were Jewish. Her father was a rabbi. They left Russia for the United States around 1907. Mildred Cohn was born July 12, 1913, in the Bronx, where her family lived in an apartment. When Mildred was 13, her father moved the family to a Yiddish-speaking cooperative, Heim Gesellschaft, which strongly emphasized education, the arts, social justice, and the preservation of Yiddish culture. Education Cohn graduated from high school at 14. She went on to attend Hunter College, which was both free and open to all qualified women, irrespective of race, religion or ethnic background. She received her Bachelor's cum laude in 1931. She managed to afford a single year at Columbia University, but was ineligible for an assistantship because she was a woman. After receiving her master's degree in 1932, she worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for two years. Although she had a supportive supervisor, she was the only woman among 70 men, and was informed that she would never be promoted. She subsequently returned to Columbia, studying under Harold Urey, who had just won the Nobel Prize. Originally, Cohn was working to study the different isotopes of carbon. However, her equipment failed her, and she could not finish this project. She went on to write her dissertation on oxygen isotopes and earned her PhD in physical chemistry in 1938.