Mary Maynard Daly

Template:Linkless Marie Maynard Daly (1921-) was the first African-American female in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Childhood/Family Background

Daly’s father had attended Cornell University with intentions of becoming a chemist, but he was unable to complete his education due to a lack of funds. His daughter was therefore continuing her father’s legacy by majoring in chemistry. Many years later, Daly would establish a Queens’ College scholarship fund in her father’s name to assist minority students majoring in chemistry or physics.

Daly’s father had emigrated from the British West Indies, found work as a postal clerk, and eventually married Helen Page of Washington, D.C. They lived in New York City, where Daly was born and raised. She often visited her maternal grandparents in Washington, where she was able to read about scientists and their achievements in her grandfather’s extensive library. She was especially impressed by Paul de Kruif’s The Microbe Hunters, a work which partially influenced her decision to become a scientist.

Education

After Daly graduated from all-girls Hunter College High School (where she was also encouraged to pursue chemistry), she enrolled in Queens College, a small, relatively new school in Flushing, New York. Living at home to save money, Daly majored in chemistry and graduated from Queens magna cum laude in 1942.

Daly remained at Queens College for another year, working as a laboratory assistant while attending graduate school at New York University. She completed her M.S. in Chemistry in one year. She then enrolled in the doctoral program at Columbia University, where, under the supervision of Dr. Mary L. Caldwell, she completed her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1947. Caldwell, who had a doctorate in nutrition, helped Daly discover how chemicals produced in the body contribute to food digestion.

Early career

Daly served two years as a physical science instructor at Howard University. After being awarded an American Cancer Society grant to support her postdoctoral research, she joined A. E. Mirsky at the Rockefeller Institute, where they studied the cell nucleus. In 1953, after Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA, Daly’s world changed significantly: suddenly, the cell nucleus research field was flooded with funding opportunities. Her work flourished in the new environment.

In 1955 Daly returned to Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons to teach biochemistry. She began collaborating with Dr. Quentin B. Deming to investigate the underlying causes of heart attacks. They found that high cholesterol levels contributed to the blockage of arteries that supply oxygen to the heart. She also investigated the effects of sugar on the function of coronary arteries. Later, she became a pioneer in studying the impact of cigarette smoking on the lungs.

Later career

In 1960 Daly and Deming moved to Yeshiva University at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. At Yeshiva, she continued her research and taught biochemistry courses. She enjoyed teaching medical students and was dedicated to increasing the number of minority students enrolled in medical schools.

Daly also served as an investigator for the American Heart Association; she was especially interested in how hypertension affects the circulatory system. She was a member of the prestigious Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Science for two years. Daly retired from the Einstein College of Medicine in 1986.

References

Brown, Mitchell, “Faces of Science: African-Americans in the Sciences,” 1996 [1]

Kessler, James; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Renee; and Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African-American Scientists of the 20th Century. Oryx Press: Phoenix, AZ, 1996.

“Biographical Snapshots of Famous Women and Minority Scientists”: Journal of Chemical Education [2]