Born: Unknown, Unknown (Eastern Europe)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Other women whose work on penicillin went largely unrecognised included lab assistant Mary Hunt, who reputedly found the mold that led to penicillium rubens strain NRRL 1951—the “parent” of all strains that would later be used commercially. Another Mary, Dr. Mary Ethel Florey, ran the first clinical trials of penicillin in 1941 alongside her lab partner and husband Howard Walter Florey. Yet, like so many other wives, she was left out when he won a Nobel in 1945 for the work they had done together to transform Alexander Fleming’s discovery into a useful and effective drug. The only mention of her in his Nobel bio is the last two sentences: “He married Mary Ethel Hayter Reed in 1926. They have two children, Paquita Mary Joanna and Charles du Vé.” Although the male Florey reportedly said, “It must never be forgotten that if it wasn’t for Ethel penicillin would not have been introduced into medical practice when it was,” he doesn’t seem to have done much to promote or ensure her legacy. He didn’t even mention her in his lecture, which Nobel Prize winners deliver about their work, despite name-dropping more than a dozen other scientists.