Mary Fieser

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Mary Peters Fieser (born May 27, 1909 in Atchison , Kansas , † March 22, 1997 in Belmont , Massachusetts ) was an American chemist .

Live and act

She was the daughter of an English professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and studied at Bryn Mawr College with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1930. There she also met chemistry professor Louis Fieser , her future husband (married in 1932) , which she followed to Harvard University in 1930 . She officially studied at Radcliffe College (but took her courses mostly at Harvard) with a master’s degree in 1936. She never did a doctorate, mainly because she had learned about discrimination against female chemists and was able to work with her husband. She worked closely with Louis Fieser, and both are known for their various textbooks together, including the successful textbook Organic Chemistry (1944). She never had a paid position at Harvard University, but became a research associate (unpaid) after 29 years in the 1960s. After the death of Louis Fieser, she continued her work into the 1990s.

She worked with Louis Fieser on the synthesis of natural products such as steroids, for example cortisone . They also synthesized vitamin K and derivatives of the anti-malarial drug quinones , but these were not found to be effective.

Her textbook of organic chemistry for colleges with Louis Fieser was innovative for its time, for example it dealt with applications of organic chemistry in daily life (these chapters were mainly from Mary Fieser). Later editions included short biographies of over 450 chemists.

From 1967 she gave with Louis Fieser Reagents of Organic Synthesis (later Fieser's reagents for organic synthesis), which she continued to publish with others after Fieser's death (until 1994). The series finally comprised 16 volumes.

In 1971 she received the American Chemical Society's Garvan-Olin Medal . The Louis and Mary Fieser Laboratory for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry at Harvard is named after them.

The marriage with Louis Fieser remained childless. She had a fondness for cats, drawings of which found their way into the forewords of her books (first in Organic Chemistry 1944).

Fonts

with Louis Fieser:

  • Organic Chemistry, Boston: DC Heath 1944, 3rd edition, New York, Reinhold 1956
    • German translation: Textbook of Organic Chemistry, Weinheim: VCH, 2nd edition 1955 (Translator Hans R. Hensel, foreword Richard Kuhn )
  • Textbook of Organic Chemistry, Boston: DC Heath 1950
  • Style Guide for Chemists, New York: Reinhold 1960
  • Introduction to Organic Chemistry, Boston: DC Heath 1957
  • Basic Organic Chemistry, Boston: DC Heath 1959
  • Advanced Organic Chemistry, New York: Reinhold 1961
  • Topics in Organic Chemistry, New York: Reinhold 1963
  • Current Topics in Organic Chemistry, from 1964
  • Natural products related to phenanthrene, 3rd edition, New York: Reinhold 1949
  • Steroids, Van Nostrand 1959

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harvard did not accept women as students at the time. With a professor of analytical chemistry she was only allowed to carry out her laboratory work for the course in an adjoining building separate from the male students
  2. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Mary Peters Fieser at academictree.org, accessed on February 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ Mary Fieser. (No longer available online.) In: www.brynmawr.edu. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016 ; accessed on November 8, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brynmawr.edu
personal data
SURNAME Fieser, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fieser, Mary Peters (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Atchison (Kansas)
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1997
Place of death Belmont, Massachusetts