Today, in the section of women scientists, we are going to talk about Gertrude Theresa Cory, better known as Gertry Cori.
His case is worth admiring, because despite the many obstacles that he had to avoid during his scientific career, he managed to reach the highest, becoming the First woman wins the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
This award also fell into the hands of his husband, who trusted her at all times, pushing her to her goals and making everyone see that she was much more than the woman of a scientist: a great scientist for own merits.
Biography of Gertry Cori
Gertry Theresa Radnitz (her maiden name) was born in 1896 within a Jewish family of great scientific and cultural vocation. Her father was a recognized chemist and inventor and his mother a very educated woman, who had characters like Franz Kafka in his circle of friends.
This openness of minds led them to never oppose the scientific training of their daughter, who entered the School of Medicine of the Carl Ferdinand University from Prague in 1914.
It was there that he fell in love with Carl Cori, who will become her husband in 1920, the same year that she got her doctorate.
From that moment Carl had no trouble finding important jobs, while she had to settle for minor positions, due to his womanhood. However, thanks to her professionalism, her intelligence, her tenacity and the support of her husband, who at all times defended her ability to be part of the same research projects that he could access, she finally got the recognition she deserved for the oldest scientific achievement of his whole life.
Contributions to science by Gertry Cori
After getting married, the Cori emigrated to Vienna to work in the Childrens Carolinen Hospitalwhere Carl held a position in the laboratory and Gertry worked at the Pediatrician unit.
Fortunately, he was able to combine his work with research, publishing several articles on tblood disorders, but later the outbreak of the First World War left the European continent in a state of deterioration that led the couple to move again, this time to United States, where new studies on carbohydrate metabolism.
And that was how, in collaboration with the Argentine Bernado Houssay, were able to discover the mechanism by which the glycogen becomes lactic acid in muscle tissue, then resynthesized in the body and stored as energy source.
This milestone earned all three the PNobel Prize in Medicine in 1947, making Gertry the terceramujer in receiving a Nobel of science and in the first to obtain Medicine.
This could have been a good clasp for his career, but despite reaching the top, Dr. Cori did not stop her investigations, which continued until a few months before her death, in 1957.
Our scientist today could have become a famous person of the time simply because she was a woman of, but she knew that she deserved much more and did not stop fighting until she achieved it. The world needs more women like Gertry Cori.
