Well, that may be a stretch, but Edith Hinkley Quimby, born July 10, 1891 is considered one of the founders of nuclear medicine.
She was essential in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic applications of X-rays.
Her top concern was protecting the folks handling the radioactive materials as well as those being treated by them.
She was a lowest dose possible kinda gal.
Born in Rockford, Illinois, she graduated from Whitman College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics in 1912.
After teaching high school for a “brief stint,” she was awarded a fellowship to work on her master’s degree at The University of California. She was awarded her master’s in 1916.
Pretty heady stuff for a woman back then.
101 years ago, she moved to New York City, took at position at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases as the assistant physicist to he renowned physicist Gioacchino Failia.
The posting, very rare for a woman of her time, allowed to become an associate physicist there in 1932.
She and Failia worked together in nuclear medicine for forty years focusing on safe dosages of medicinal radiation.
She was a pioneer in the use of synthesized radioactive materials for treating cancer as well as other options.
In 1941, she joined the faculty of Cornell University’s Medical College as an assistant professor of radiology. The following year she became an AP of radiation physics at Columbia and was promoted to full professor in 1954.
Retiring in 1960, she never really stopped working, teaching, and speaking.
Honored and lauded more than most of the women in science of her time, she was the first woman to receive the Janeway Medal from the American Radium Society.
Her work “placed every radiologist in her debt,” and she was elected president of the American Radium Society in 1954, and received the American College of Radiology’s Gold Medal in 1963.
Unlike her predecessor, Marie Curie, she died of old age on October 11, 1982 at the age of 91.
Harold Rossi of Columbia eulogized her in print when he said, “…all too often the creative achievements of scientific pioneers are overshadowed by further developments made by others or simply become anonymous components of accepted practice. Fortunately, Quimby’s exceptional service to radiological physics was widely recognized.”
I don’t know if she had a glow about her, but she was a pioneer in science and truly a woman of influence whose work saved countless lives.
You know, come to think of it, I’m sure she had a glow about her.
Have a great weekend and hug a radiology survivor today.