Born: 27 October 1910, United States
Died: 12 January 2000
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Margaret Hutchinson
The following was written by Nina Baker and is excerpted from the book From Alchemy to Transport Phenomena: A Global History of Women in Chemical Engineering.
The first female member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, also a Rice graduate (BSc 1932) Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau (1910-2000), is remembered particularly for having designed the first commercial penicillin production plant, using deep-tank fermentation of the mold during WW2 at Pfizers.
Hutchinson gained her DSc in chemical engineering for her thesis on ‘The effect of solute on the liquid film resistance in gas absorption’ from MIT in 1937. She started her working life in industry at E. B. Badger in Boston, where she worked on new methods for producing synthetic rubber and distilling oil for aircraft fuel. Her later work continued work on distillation column design and plants for the petrochemical industries until her retirement in 1961.