Dr. Hope Hopps

• Grew up in Rhode Island, went to University of Rhode Island. Later received a master’s in microbiology from University of Maryland in 1950.
• Worked as a bacteriologist at Garfield Memorial Hospital and then Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
• Joined the NIH in 1956, first in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
• Joined DBS in 1960 in the Laboratory of Viral Immunology.
• Worked with Drs. Parkman and Meyer on the Rubella vaccine and the patented Rubella antibody test.
• Authored or co-authored more than 89 articles, was awarded two patents (her second was for the BS-C-1 cell line that she developed) and was the national president of Graduate Women in Science.
• Worked in Building 29A, second floor beginning in 1967 when it opened; likely worked in Building 29, second floor with the Laboratory of Viral Immunology before that.
• Also became an administrator after the transfer to the FDA in 1972, first as the assistant to the Director of Biologics, then as acting Associate Director for Program Development & Operations, working in Building 29.

Photo Credit: Sigma Delta Epsilon records, #3605. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library (need to confirm we can use this, it was in the NLM article on Hopps); At right, Meyer, Hopps, and Parkman in a photo from National Library of Medicine.

Bibliography:

Bowen, Ashley. “Finding Hope: A Woman’s Place Is In The Lab.” Circulating Now: From the

Historical Collection of the National Library of Medicine. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, 2018. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2018/09/06/finding-hope-a-womans-place-is-in-the-lab/.

NIH Office of History & Stetten Museum. Telephone Directory, National Institutes of Health.

Misc. years. Bethesda, MD.

Washington Post. “Hope E. Hopps Dies At 62.” November 11, 1988.