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Monday, May 15, 2023

Another woman leader to remember

 Agnes Fay Morgan, was born in Peoria, Illinois (1884). She studied chemistry in college, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. But job prospects for female chemists were bleak, so she took a position in the Home Economics department at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1915. She was an associate professor of "household science," specifically nutrition. She made it her mission to bring the element of science into the program, which was typically dismissed as "women's work." When she was made chair of the department, she increased the rigor of the program and worked to have it taken seriously. While other home economics programs were little more than instruction on the art of gracious living, Morgan required all of her students to have a solid foundation in physical and biological science. In 1960 — six years after Morgan retired — the Home Economics Department was renamed the Nutritional Sciences Department, and a year after that, their building was renamed Agnes Fay Morgan Hall. Even after she officially retired, she never gave up her research, and continued to show up to her Berkeley office on a regular basis until her death in 1968.

Morgan, with her background in chemistry applied to the field of nutrition, wrote more than 250 scientific papers. She was responsible for much of what we know about the vitamins in food. She also proved the link between vitamin deficiencies and poor health conditions; showed certain vitamins' effect on hormones; and analyzed the effects of heat and processing on the stability of vitamins and proteins.



“There were giants in the earth in those days,” and time will endorse the verdict that Agnes Fay Morgan is high on the list of “men (and women) of renown” who have served the University of California long and well.

From the web site linked by her name above.

Wikipedia gives a few more details:

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Morgan held brief teaching appointments at smaller schools before earning a doctorate and taking the position at Berkeley. Morgan's lab conducted significant research into the nutritional composition of foods and the biochemistry of vitamins, especially pantothenic acid (vitamin B5). Her work correlated decreasing bone density with increasing age and connected serum cholesterol levels with dietary fat intake.


Today's quote:

poet Emily Dickinson wrote “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.”

6 comments:

  1. ..."household science," sounds right for the times. Many want us to back to those times.

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    Replies
    1. This woman scientist did find more information about how food/nutrition affect our bodies, than just fulllfilling our tastes at meals.

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  2. We have come such a long way! Great post.

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    Replies
    1. She would have supported the movement for healthier kids and home gardens!

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There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.