Marie Maynard Daly was the first African American woman to obtain a PhD in chemistry in the United States. She was passionate about increasing the numbers of minority students in medical school and graduate science programmes.
Marie Maynard Daly was born in Queens, New York in 1921. Watching her father study for his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Cornell University sparked her interest in chemistry. However, due to lack of funds, he had to drop out and returned to New York City, where he worked as a postal clerk. During her PhD at Columbia University, she researched how compounds produced in the body affect and participate in digestion. In 1947, in just three years, she completed her PhD. She became the first African American woman to obtain a PhD in chemistry in the United States. In 1960 Marie Maynard Daly became a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement in 1986.
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