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Emma Perry Carr, a physical organic chemist, was the first recipient of the prestigious Garvan Medal in 1936. Carr was born on July 23, 1880 in Holmesville, Ohio. As an undergraduate, she attended Ohio State University, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Chicago, from which she graduated with a B.S. in chemistry in 1905. She taught at Mount Holyoke from 1905-1907. In 1907, she returned to the University of Chicago for graduate study under the direction of Professor Julius Stieglitz and was awarded a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1910.
Carr went back to Mount Holyoke College as a chemistry professor and became chair of the department in 1913. It was during her tenure there that she received the first Garvan Medal. She was honored as an excellent administrator as well as a charismatic teacher and a first-rate research chemist. Her research group studied the ultraviolet spectra of organic molecules as a means of investigating their electronic structures. She became a worldwide leader in this area of research. Her group was one of the earliest collaborative research groups that included professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
Emma Carr retired from Mount Holyoke College in 1946. She died on January 7, 1972 in Evanston, Illinois.
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