Gertrude Belle Elion

Gertrude Belle Elion , 1918-99, American pharmacologist, b. New York City, B.S. Hunter College, 1937. Unable to find research work (largely because she was a woman), she taught high school chemistry before joining Burroughs Wellcome Laboratories in 1944. She and colleague George Hitchings developed drug treatments for leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, viral herpes, urinary and respiratory tract infections, and AIDS. In 1988 the pair shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with British pharmacologist Sir James Black .

Bell, Gertrude (1868–1926). Traveller, archaeologist, and diplomatist in the Middle East. Bell took a first in modern history at Oxford at the age of 18 and then made herself expert in Persian before turning to Arabic in 1899 when she first visited the Middle East. Four major caravan journeys through the Syrian and Arabian region and some archaeological digs between 1905 and 1913 led to an RGS medal and several books, the best known being The Desert and the Sown.