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In 1957, Dr. Margaret Pittman became the first woman named chief of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) laboratory, the Laboratory of Bacterial Products, a post she held until her retirement in 1971. 

Margaret Pittman grew up in Prairie Grove, Arkansas and credited her interest in science to her physician father. She graduated magna cum laude in 1923 from Hendrix College (Arkansas), majoring in mathematics and biology.

Dr. Pittman taught at Galloway College (Atlanta) and then attended the University of Chicago for a masters and Ph.D. in bacteriology.

In 1928, Dr. Pittman began working at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research (New York) with Dr. Rufus Cole on whether Hemophilus influenza caused influenza (it does not). Developing a vaccine against meningitis caused by a strain of H. influenza earned her an international scientific reputation before the age of 30.

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Dr. Pittman, at left, and Dr. Sadie L. Carlin reading an agglutination reaction, part of the test for potency of anti-meningitis serum (1937)

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National Museum of American History

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She joined the NIH Division of Biologics Control (later the Division of Biologics Standards [DBS]) in 1936, with her mentor Dr. Sara E. Branham; they were both part of a group of women bacteriologists who studied at University of Chicago. They worked to develop standards for the meningococcal antiserum.

During World War II, Dr. Pittman investigated the safety of blood and blood products, discovering and eliminating the cause of fever and death from plasma infusions.

In 1944, she developed a new assay to test the potency of the pertussis vaccine, under the direction of Dr. Milton Veldee, Director of the Biologics Control Laboratory at the time.

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Dr Pittman handles a mouse in a laboratory as another lab member observesImage Added

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Dr. Pittman working in the lab

After World War II, Dr. Pittman continued to work with other bacterial vaccines, including cholera, where she worked with the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). She was also instrumental in assessing the efficacy of and establish national and international standards for the production of the yellow fever vaccine and the typhoid vaccine.

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