Biologics Regulation and ResearchThe People and Work of Buildings 29 & 29A

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 father who was a physician. She graduated magna cum laude in 1923 from Hendrix College (Arkansas), majoring in mathematics and biology. Pittman taught at Galloway College (Atlanta) and then attended the University of Chicago for a master's and Ph.D. in bacteriology.

In 1928, 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.

During World War II, 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.

After World War II, Pittman continued to work on other bacterial vaccines, including partnering with the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization to study cholera. She was also instrumental in assessing the efficacy of and establishing national and international standards for the production of yellow fever vaccine and typhoid vaccine.