Mildred Cohn (1913-2009) was a biochemist who advanced the study of metabolic processes, research that contributed to the development of medical technologies like the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). She started her career in physics, reaching new frontiers in understanding chemical reactions at the atomic level. Using innovative technologies -- mass spectrometer, nuclear magnetic resonance, and electronic paramagnetic resonance -- to elucidate organic reactions. Her research included metabolic studies, mechanisms of enzymatic reactions, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and electron spin.

Born in New York's Bronx borough, to Russian Jewish emigrants, Ms. Cohn graduated from high school at age 14, opting to study chemistry at Hunter College. Attending Columbia University, she received her Masters in Chemistry in 1932.

Unable to continue in Columbia's doctoral program, Ms. Cohn worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a forerunner to NASA. The only woman on a staff of 70 men, the project's purpose was to develop fuel-injection airplane engines.

She returned to Columbia University in 1934, to begin her doctoral studies under the supervision of Harold Urey. The behavior of isotopes of oxygen was her PhD thesis, submitted in 1938.

Because she was neither male or Christian, employment did not come easily. Dr. Cohn eventually landed a research position in the laboratory of Vincent du Vigneaud at Washington University in St. Louis. While working here she pioneered the use of isotopic labelling to track the metabolism of sulphur-containing compounds in mammalian cells.

In 1946, remaining at Washington University, she joined the laboratory of Carl and Gerty Cori. Dr. Cohn used isotopic labelling to investigate the chemistry of organophosphate molecules and pioneering the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to explore the behavior of enzymes and other proteins during chemical reactions in the body. Her research on the structure and activity of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has impacted such fields as neuroscience and biotechnology.

In 1961, Dr. Cohn became a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania and was made a full professor within a year. In 1964, she became the only woman to receive the American Heart Association's lifetime career award. In 1978, the university appointed her the Benjamin Rush professor of physiological chemistry.

Over the course of her career, Dr. Cohn overcame countless obstacles due to her gender achieving many firsts, including the first woman on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the first female president of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Retired in 1982, she continued to receive recognition and awards for her pioneering work, including the Columbia University Chandler Medal, nine honorary doctorates, and the National Medal of Science.

Mildred Cohn married physicist Henry Primakoff in 1938. She did not change her name. The couple had three children: two daughters, one son. Her husband died in 1983.

Dr. Cohn died in 2009, the day after her induction into the Woman's Hall of Fame, in Seneca Falls, NY.

The Mildred Cohn Papers (1934-2008) contain correspondence, research data by Cohn, her colleagues and students, organizations participated in, and laboratories worked for, which document, primarily the later part, of Cohn's career as biochemist.

The papers (53 boxes; 26.5 linear feet) are divided into eight series:

Provenance

Gift from Mildred Cohn and accessioned, 07/28/1982 (1982 942ms).

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics Note

The career of Mildred Cohn developed during a time when the Rockefeller Foundation was funneling millions of dollars into physico-chemical biology, with a primary interest in the laboratories where Cohn conducted her researches. Mildred Cohn received her doctorate in physical chemistry from Columbia University in 1938, completing her graduate work under Harold C. Urey on the biological uses of stable isotopes. She continued her research at Cornell under Vincent Du Vigneaud, where she established an isotope laboratory for investigations of various metabolic processes. From 1946 to 1960 Cohn worked in the laboratory of Carl and Gerty Cori (Nobel laureates in 1947 for studies of glycogen metabolism) at Washington University, continuing her studies of enzymatic mechanisms with the use of isotopes. In 1953 she began working with the new technique of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which remained her active research area at the Johnson Foundation and Department of Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. The Cohn collection includes correspondence, research data, reviews of grant proposals (NSF, Research Corporation), manuscripts, and student recommendations (restricted); however, there is almost no record of her career prior to the early 1950s. These materials are a rich source on the role of instruments and laboratory techniques in biochemistry and biophysics. The papers of Mildred Cohn are especially informative on the early uses of NMR applications to biological systems, and on the development of that important technology from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. These files, complemented by correspondence with Cohn's colleagues, form a substantial record of the history of NMR technology in the life sciences and the history of biophysics.

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• American Society of Biological Chemists
• Institute for Cancer Research (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Journal of Biological Chemistry
• National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
• University of Pennsylvania. Faculty
• University of Pennsylvania. School of Medicine
• Weizmann Institute of Science

• Women scientists

• Bothner-By, Aksel A., 1921-2017
• Boyer, Paul D., 1918-2018
• Chance, Britton, 1913-2010
• Cohn, Mildred
• Cori, C. F. (Carl Ferdinand), 1896-1984
• Cori, Gerti Theresa Radniz, 1896-1957
• Grunberg-Manago, Marianne
• Krebs, Hans Adolf, Sir
• Noda, Lafayette
• O'Sullivan, W.J.
• Rose, Irwin A.
• Urey, Harold Clayton, 1893-1981
• Vigneaud, Vincent du, 1901-1978
• Wilson, G. Edwin, Jr.

• Adenosine triphosphate
• Biochemistry.
• Biophysics.
• Jewish scientists.
• Mass Spectrometry
• Medical sciences
• Medicine -- Research -- United States.
• Molecular biology.
• Nuclear magnetic resonance.
• Women in science