Gertrude Elion - Infographics

 

Gertrude Elion Lesson Summary

Two episodes from her life: 

1. Nobel Prize post-event party. How she tapped her foot and nodded her head when she heard her favourite music being played in the background while all the men sat there in a stiff and formal manner. 
2. The schoolgirl who wrote a letter telling her that Gertrude Elion is her inspiration. The way she inspired the future - especially the girls is something amazing

 

Early life and her mission in life: 

Born in the U.S to emigrant parents. Parents are from Poland. She had a brother and they had a happy childhood. She had a thirst for knowledge and enjoyed all her courses. Death of her grandfather due to cancer when she was 15 made her choose Chemistry as a major subject. Those days girls either went on to become teachers or did scientific research. She was known by the name Trudy. 

 

Education: 

 

Received her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. There were no jobs available. She joined a lab working without salary for more than one year and then, later on, she received 20 dollars a week. With the money saved, she joined the graduate school at NYU in 1939.

 

To quote her ‘I wanted to be a chemist when no women were doing that. The world was not waiting for me’. (Her life reminds us of Kalpana Chawala - The Sky is the Limit) Did her MS Science Degree and completed it in the year 1941. 

 

She tried doing her PhD afterwards, but she didn’t complete it. She started as a part-time research scholar and later on when she was asked to convert it into a full-time degree she refused because she enjoyed her exciting practical work. She says - 'You don’t need a PhD to do the work we are doing'. 

 

Professional Life: 

World War II gave her a break. No men were around so women were recruited. She was hired as an analytical chemist and her job was to measure the acidity of pickles and the colour of mayonnaise. She accepted the position of Biochemist 1944 and spent the next 39 years at Burroughs Wellcome. 

 

She discovered the first effective drug that induced remission (A temporary reduction of the severity of disease or pain) The drug was used for childhood leukaemia. One of the things that she had in her mind wad to discover what kills cancer cells. 

 

After her retirement in 1983, she remained active in her field as an advisor to many organizations, including WHO and the American Association for Cancer Research. Her research team invented azidothymidine (AZT) a drug for the treatment of HIV infection.  She mentored a third-year Duke University medical student every year who would take a year off from courses and do research under Trudy. She made herself available to students. She was active in many colleges in the US. She was also an advocate for the advancement of women in science. When she visits a college, she normally liked interacting with students than meeting the department heads. 

 

Trudy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and medicine in 1988 for her contribution towards her discovery of drugs for treatment. She shared the prize with her long-time associate George H Hitchings and English scientist James Black. 

 

Trudy’s hobbies are photography and music. She liked Music and Photography. She went beyond Chemistry to other fields like biochemistry, pharmacology, immunology and eventually virology. She never got married. Her work became her vocation and avocation. 

 

 

Ten Facts about Gertrude Elion

Ten facts about Gertrude Elion 

 

1. Her parents came to the U.S from Poland. Her father was a dentist and her mother was a homemaker. 
2. She had a brother and they had a happy childhood.
3. She had a thirst for knowledge and enjoyed all her subjects at school. 
4. Death of her grandfather due to cancer when she was 15 made her choose Chemistry as a major subject.
5. Those days girls either went on to become teachers or did scientific research. 
6. She was the only female student in the graduate Chemistry class
7. She got her Master of Science degree in Chemistry in 1941.
8. It was WWII that made her employed 
9. She liked Music and Photography
10. She went beyond Chemistry to other fields like biochemistry, pharmacology, immunology and eventually virology.
11. She never got married. Her work became her vocation and avocation. 

 

The Story of Stanford - Summary

A man and a woman visited Harvard University one day. Lady was dressed in a gingham dress - a dress material made from dyed cotton. Her husband was dressed in a dress which had been woven at home and is also damaged. They wanted to meet the President of Harvard University. The secretary to the President is not impressed by the looks of the couple, especially their dress. The secretary asks the couple to wait outside. She thought that they would go away. The couple waited for hours. Finally, the secretary decides to inform the President about the waiting couple. She tells the President to meet them for five minutes. President was a busy man and he was arrogant. The couple now seated in front of the President tells him that their son who had studied at Harvard for one year has died. Their son loved Harvard and he liked the campus. The couple wanted to erect a memorial for him somewhere on the campus. The President is shocked and tells them that the University can’t erect a statue for all the students who attended Harvard and died. If they do so, he said, the campus will look like a graveyard. The Lady corrects the President and tells him that they don’t want to build a statue but a building. The President made fun of them by saying that they don’t have the money to do that and Harvard University is worth 7 and a half millions of dollars. The lady was silent and then she turned to her husband and said - Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don’t we just start our own? Her husband nodded. 

The name of the couple - Mr and Mrs Leland Stanford. They both walked away from Harvard University and they travelled to Palo Alto, California and they established a University in their son’s name - Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15. The name of the University is Stanford University. 

Infographics - A Different History by Sujata Bhatt

 

A Different History - Poem Analysis

Analysis of the Poem

Great Pan - Greek God of Nature. This God is shown as having the head of the Goat and body of a man. This shows the division in one’s self. The poet is like this - There are two identities in her. One is Indian and the other one is US citizen. Two cultures.

 

Pan is also the God of music. The word emigration refers to the way the culture travelled from Greece to India. Alexander the Great brought the Greek culture to India when he fought the battle of Hydaspes (326 BC) where he defeated the King Porus. 

 

The reference to the exotic animals - snakes and monkeys show how they are part of the Indian culture. Hanuman or Anjaneya and worshipping the snake. 

 

Literature and books came from Nature. 

 

The personification of book and tree - rude to a book and offending the tree

 

Saraswathi - Goddess of Music and literature. 

Memories of how we respected the book. 

 

The second stanza has ‘Which language’ repeated twice - rhetorical question - answer is English

The poem becomes a political one with the use of some violent images. 

The second stanza also talks about erasing cultures

 

Many violent images in the second stanza: 

Murder

Torture

Cropped - Soul has been cropped - reshaped, reduce and resized

Oppressor’s tongue 

Conqueror’s face

Swooped 

Scythe - Pronounced as sayeth 

The Unborn children they still love that strange language 

 

One of the main themes of the poem is Language and Identity 

The angry tone in the second stanza

The lines are free and open structure 

Emphasis is on the message rather than the rhyme

 

English Rule and how it affected India’s growth 

The way culture evolved 

Language is identity 

Language is thought 

 

Many languages are dying 

Extended Activity - Listen to the poem and practice the pronunciation 

Try to imitate the style of the poet’s language 

Trace the influence of the American accent in her language 

A Different History by Sujata Bhatt - Introduction to the poem

 

A Different History by Sujata Bhatt - Introduction 

1.     Deals with issues of globalization and westernization 

2.     Identity Crisis due to the two languages that we learn - Our own mother tongue and English

3.     She is known as a poet of many cultures

4.     According to her - ‘Poetry enriches her being’

5.     Writing poems inspired by even newspaper articles

6.     Enjoys reading her poems aloud to make the necessary corrections

7.     It is always lucky to listen to the poet herself reading the poem. 

8.     When you listen to the poem performed, you get more meanings and you understand the tone of the poem.

9.     Choice of English - English became her language - In some poems, she has mixed Gujarati and English.

10.  Her poems reflect the cultures that she has experienced in her life. Her travels to the US and back to India. She has lived in Germany, Italy, UK, US and even Latin America. 

Infographics for Fusion Music