Fern P. Rathe
| Fern P. Rathe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 8, 1930  La Crosse |
| Died | September 27, 2013 (aged 83) Guttenberg |
| Alma mater | |
| Employer | |
Fern Pfafflin Rathe (January 8, 1930 – September 27, 2013) was an American organic chemist who helped discover cathomycin, an antibiotic used to treat strains of the bacteria Staphylococcus, while working at pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.
Early life and education[]
Fern Pfafflin was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on January 8, 1930.[1] She was the only child of Edward and Bessie (Chalsma) Pfafflin.[2] She was raised on a family farm near New Amsterdam, Wisconsin, attending a one-room rural schoolhouse.[1] She graduated as the valedictorian of Holmen High School in 1948.[1]
Pfafflin attended Carleton College and received her bachelor's degree in 1952, majoring in chemistry and zoology.[1] She met her husband, John Rathe, at Carleton and they married in August 1953.[2]
Career in chemical research[]
After graduating, Rathe worked as a biochemist for Merck and Company in Rahway, New Jersey, as a part of the research team of Karl August Folkers.[1] One of the projects she was involved in was a search for new antibiotics. Rathe, Folkers, and Edward Anthony Kaczka were first to isolate cathomycin in 1955.[3] The antibiotic was crystallized for the first time at Rathe's lab bench.[1]
She worked at the Merck Research Lab until she started her family in 1956.[1]
Later life[]
Rathe lived with her husband and four children in Moline, Illinois.[1] She earned her private pilot license with a twin-engine rating.[1] Rathe was an active member of the Ninety-Nines organization for female pilots, and in 1971 she flew co-pilot in the Powder Puff Derby Air Race.[1]
Rathe died in Guttenberg, Iowa on September 27, 2013, after living with advanced Parkinson's disease.[1][2]
References[]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ferriter, Meghan (December 17, 2013). "Fern P. Rathe: Navigating the Lab and the Skies". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Fern Pfafflin Rathe". La Crosse Tribune. October 7, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
- ^ "Fern P. Rathe, Karl August Folkers (1906-1997), and Edward Anthony Kaczka (b. 1914)". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
External links[]
- Cathomycin. I. Isolation and Characterization 1955 article from the Journal of the American Chemical Society describing the isolation of cathomycin
- 1930 births
- 2013 deaths
- 20th-century American women scientists
- American women chemists
- 21st-century American women