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    • Elizabeth Hazen
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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Ruth Wakefield
    • Madam C J Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, World Leaders, & Warriors
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
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    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
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    • Jean Bartik
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    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
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    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
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    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
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    • Anita DeFrantz
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    • Althea Gibson
    • Mia Hamm
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    • Florence Griffith Joyner
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    • Bessie Stringfield
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    • Sheryl Swoopes
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    • Dara Torres
    • Lindsey Vonn
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    • Lynette Woodard
    • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
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Rachel Fuller Brown

November 23, 1898 - January 14, 1980
(Springfield, MA - Albany, NY)
  • Worked with Elizabeth Hazen to invent Nystatin, the FIRST antifungal medicine in the world
  • Nystatin has many applications, ranging from curing athlete's foot to cleaning mildew off priceless paintings
  • Unable to afford college, a wealthy friend of the family paid for her to go to Mount Holyoke, where she earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry (Brown took it upon herself to pay the woman back)
  • Met microbiologist and mycologist, Elizabeth Hazen, in 1948, and within a year they developed Nystatin, which was manufactured by ER Squibb and Sons under the name Mycostatin
  • Instead of selling the rights to a pharmaceutical company, they founded the nonprofit Research Corporation of New York and patented the drug through that, generating $13 million that supported research grants in immunology, biochemistry, and microbiology, as well as bolstered programs that helped women in science
  • Also worked with Hazen to develop a pneumonia vaccine that is still in use today, as well as discover the antibiotics phalamycin and capacidin
  • She and Hazen were given many joint awards: the Squibb Award in Chemotherapy, the Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists (they were the FIRST women to receive this award), and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
  • On her own, Brown received the New York State Department of Health's Distinguished Service Award, and the Rhoda Benham Award of the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas
  • Also the FIRST female vestry in her Episcopalian church
Picture
Hazen (left), Brown (right). Photo by Smithsonian Institution [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons
Bibliography: Harvey, Joy and Marilyn B. Ogilvie. "Brown, Rachel Fuller." The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, Vol. 1. Routledge, 2000, 191.
Vare, Ethlie Ann and Greg Ptacek. Patently Female. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002. Print.

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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Ruth Wakefield
    • Madam C J Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, World Leaders, & Warriors
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Scientists & Mathematicians
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Exploration & Sports
    • Nicola Adams
    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Simone Biles
    • Bonnie Blair
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Nadia Comaneci
    • Dominique Dawes
    • Anita DeFrantz
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Gertrude Ederle
    • Althea Gibson
    • Mia Hamm
    • Sonja Henie
    • Amy Johnson
    • Florence Griffith Joyner
    • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
    • Billie Jean King
    • Katie Ledecky
    • Lisa Leslie
    • Nancy Lieberman
    • Ellen MacArthur
    • Cheryl Miller
    • Jackie Mitchell
    • Martina Navratilova
    • Annie Smith Peck
    • Wilma Rudolph
    • Sacagawea
    • Annika Sorenstam
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Pat Summitt
    • Sheryl Swoopes
    • Valentina Tereshkova
    • Dara Torres
    • Lindsey Vonn
    • Serena Williams
    • Venus Williams
    • Lynette Woodard
    • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Sister Rosetta Tharpe
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin Board
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  • Contact