Marcella Boveri

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Marcella Boveri in 1897.

Marcella Boveri (born October 7, 1863 in Boston , † October 24, 1950 in Trenton , New Jersey ), born Marcella Imelda O'Grady , was an American biologist . She married the German biologist Theodor Boveri , and her daughter Margret Boveri is one of the most famous German post-war journalists .

Marcella Boveri was the daughter of Irish immigrants. She was one of the first generation of women to study science and was the first woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1885 in biology . After graduating from Harvard University , she worked as assistant to zoologist and first US geneticist Edmund B. Wilson at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania . In 1889 she moved to Vassar College , where she worked as a lecturer.

In 1896 Marcella O'Grady came to Würzburg as a visiting scientist , where she wanted to conduct cell biology research with Theodor Boveri at the Zoological Institute . T. Boveri and Wilson knew each other from their days in Munich. On October 5, 1897, the Boveris married on a trip in Boston. At that time, women were not yet admitted to university in Germany. She was therefore the first officially admitted listener at this facility. It was mostly admired as a curiosity. One of the few who supported her in her work and remained lifelong friendly friends was Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen .

With the birth of her daughter Margret Boveri , who was born on August 14, 1900, Marcella Boveri gave up both her scientific career and her US citizenship. In the second year of the First World War , on October 15, 1915, Theodor Boveri died, who had been ailing for some time. Ferdinand Sauerbruch , who was not one of the doctors who treated Boveri, suspected poisoning by radium .

Marcella Boveri initially stayed in Germany. She only returned to the USA in January 1925, where she felt recognized as a scientist and was not only perceived as the widow of the biologist Theodor Boveri. At the age of 62 she took over at the Catholic Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut , the establishment of the science department ("science department"). She taught there until 1943.

literature

  • Margaret R. Wright: Marcella O'Grady Boveri (1863-1950): Her Three Careers in Biology in: Isis, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pp. 627-652 online version

Individual evidence

  1. ^ VA McKusick: Marcella O'Grady Boveri (1865-1950) and the chromosome theory of cancer. In: Journal of medical genetics. Volume 22, Number 6, December 1985, pp. 431-440, PMID 3908684 , PMC 1049502 (free full text).
  2. ^ A b Fritz Baltzer: Theodor Boveri, Life and Work of a Great Biologist, 1862 - 1915 (=  Great Natural Scientist . Volume 25 ). Scientific publishing company MBH, Stuttgart 1962 (194 pages).
  3. ↑ AMC homepage

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Boveri, Marcella
ALTERNATIVE NAMES O'Grady, Marcella (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American biologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1950
Place of death Trenton , New Jersey