Icie Macy Hoobler

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Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (born July 23, 1892 in Daviess County , Missouri , † January 6, 1984 ibid) was an American biochemist . From 1923 she worked for over 30 years as a director at the research institute of the Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit , where she carried out long-term studies on child development as part of the Nutrition Research Project . Among other things, she dealt with the metabolism of pregnant women and the composition of breast milk as well as the influence of diet on the development of infants and children.

Life

Youth and parents

Icie Gertrude Macy was born on July 23, 1892 on the farm of her parents Perry Macy and Ollevia Elvaree Macy, nee Critten, and was the third child of four siblings. The farm, three miles east of Gallatin in Daviess County , Missouri , was built by her great-grandfather, who bought the 400- acre land in 1834 . He was a descendant of Thomas Macy, who was one of the first settlers to emigrate from England to Nantucket , Massachusetts around 1635 .

After attending a one-class school near the farm, she followed her older sister to the Central College for Women in Lexington , Missouri, in 1907 . At her father's request, she initially majored in music, harmony and music history and learned to play the piano . After three years, however, she was able to convince her parents that she had no musical talent and finally graduated in 1914 with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English . Her interest in the natural sciences was aroused in college, largely through her biology teacher, and she aspired to pursue an academic career as a scientist after graduation. Despite seven years of study, which was not without hardship for their parents, they supported their daughter's wish, but insisted on another year at the Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg for better preparation - for visiting a university in a big city , Virginia .

Academic years

In 1915 Icie Macy began studying chemistry at the University of Chicago . Under Julius Stieglitz , she completed her Bachelor of Science degree within a year. Stieglitz then offered her to do a doctorate with him , but recommended that she gain some years of experience as a teacher beforehand. She went to the University of Colorado , where she taught freshman chemistry and was pursuing her master's degree. In her second year in Boulder , she worked with the biochemist Robert C. Lewis, who had received his doctorate under Lafayette B. Mendel and who was enthusiastic about the new subject, then still known as Physiological Chemistry . After completing her master's degree in 1918, on the recommendation of Lewis and with the encouragement of Stieglitz, she went to Yale University as a doctoral student to Lafayette Mendel, the first department of biochemistry at a university in the United States , which had been founded by Russell Henry Chittenden . Under Chittenden and Mendel, she did her doctorate in 1920 with a thesis on the physiological content and toxicity of cotton seeds . Flour made from the seeds was used as a substitute for wheat flour in animal feed during World War I , but it caused symptoms of poisoning. Icie Macy showed that cotton seeds are not lacking in nutritional value and vitamin content, but that they contain the weak toxin gossypol .

Mendel then helped her to get a job as a biochemist in the laboratory of a 500-bed hospital in Pittsburgh , a task that, as the first woman in this position, was not without major obstacles. One year later, in 1921, she went to Agnes Fay Morgan at the Institute for Household Science at the University of California, Berkeley . Morgen had received her doctorate from Stieglitz and, at a meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in Chicago in 1921, became aware of Icie Macy, who presented the results of her doctoral thesis there, and offered her the position at Berkeley. She stayed there for two years until 1923 and continued her studies of cotton seeds, among other things.

Research on child development and nutrition

On the initiative of Lafayette Mendel and Elmer McCollum , Icie Macy went to the Merrill-Palmer School for Motherhood and Child Development (now the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute ) in Detroit in 1923 , which together with the Children's Hospital of Michigan built a research laboratory in 1924, of which she became director . From 1931 it was taken over by the Children's Fund of Michigan , a 25-year foundation by Senator James J. Couzens . Icie Macy Hoobler headed the Nutrition Research Project for over 30 years , which mainly dealt with the metabolism of women during pregnancy, the composition of breast milk , the growth and development of infants and children and their nutrition in Michigan's childcare facilities as well as blood tests and - made comparisons of healthy and sick mothers and children. By 1954, the approximately 150 collaborating scientists had produced over 300 publications from the results of the long-term studies as well as several books, including the three-volume edition of Nutrition and chemical growth in childhood between 1942 and 1951 . After the Children's Fund of Michigan ran out in 1954, Icie Macy Hoobler worked as a consultant for the Merrill-Palmer School until she retired in 1959 . Then she traveled to some developing countries such as Lebanon , India, Taiwan or the Philippines , and looked for ways to support the hungry people. She was also a member of several scientific associations, such as the American Institute of Nutrition (chairman 1944) or the American Chemical Society , where she was chairman of the Division of Biological Chemistry .

family

After the death of her older sister Ina, her two surviving daughters lived with Icie Macy. She raised them until the mid-1930s, and she always started her day at four in the morning to have time for her nieces in the afternoon. In 1938, at the age of 44, she married the retired pediatrician and widower B. Raymond Hoobler, with whom she had worked for a long time at the Children's Hospital of Michigan and whose first wife she was friends. The happy marriage lasted only 5 years, since B. Raymond Hoobler died in 1943. During her last active years, she had a house built in Ann Arbor , where she spent the end of 1982. After her 90th birthday, she sold the house and moved back to Gallatin, where she was born, and the Macy family, where she died in 1984.

Awards (selection)

Works (selection)

  • Nutrition and chemical growth in childhood. 3 volumes, CC Thomas, Springfield, IL 1942-1951.
  • With Harold Henderson Williams: Hidden hunger. The Jaques Cattell Press, Lancaster, PA 1945.
  • With Harriet J. Kelly, Ralph Sloan: The composition of milks. National Academy of Sciences, Washington 1950 (revised edition 1953).
  • With Harold C. Mack: Physiological changes in plasma proteins characteristic of human reproduction. Children's Fund of Michigan, Detroit 1951.
  • With Harriet J. Kelly: Chemical anthropology: a new approach to growth in children. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago 1957.
  • Motherhood: the frontier of human development. A retrospective glance. Merrill-Palmer Institute, Detroit 1970.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Elizabeth H. Oakes: Encyclopedia of World Scientists. Revised Edition, Facts On File, 2007, p. 346 f.
  2. ↑ a b Harold H. Williams: Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (1892-1984). A Biographical Sketch. In: Journal of Nutrition. Vol. 114, No. 8, 1984, pp. 1351-1362, here pp. 1353 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Marelene F. and Geoffrey W. Rayner-Canham: Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2005, pp. 138-142.
  4. ↑ Harold H. Williams: Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (1892-1984). A Biographical Sketch. In: Journal of Nutrition. Vol. 114, No. 8, 1984, pp. 1351-1362, here pp. 1354-1357.
  5. ^ Icie G. Macy, Lafayette B. Mendel: Comparative studies on the physiological value and toxicity of cotton seed and some of its products. Dissertation, Yale University, New Haven 1920.
  6. ↑ Harold H. Williams: Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (1892-1984). A Biographical Sketch. In: Journal of Nutrition. Vol. 114, No. 8, 1984, pp. 1351-1362, here pp. 1357 f.
  7. ^ Brief History of the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute (MPSI). Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, Wayne State University. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  8. ↑ Harold H. Williams: Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (1892-1984). A Biographical Sketch. In: Journal of Nutrition. Vol. 114, No. 8, 1984, pp. 1351-1362, here pp. 1358-1361.
  9. ↑ Harold H. Williams: Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (1892-1984). A Biographical Sketch. In: Journal of Nutrition. Vol. 114, No. 8, 1984, pp. 1351-1362, here pp. 1360-1362.
  10. ^ George Norlin Award Recipients. The Alumni Association of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  11. ↑ Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal. American Chemical Society (ACS). Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  12. ^ ASN Awards: Past Recipients. ( Memento from May 25, 2015 on the Internet Archive ) American Society for Nutrition (ASN).
  13. ↑ Icie Macy Hoobler. ( September 14, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ) The Michigan Women's Historical Center & Hall of Fame.
personal data
SURNAME Hoobler, Icie Macy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Macy, Icie Gertrude (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Daviess County , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1984
Place of death Daviess County , Missouri