Agnes Fay Morgan was awarded the prestigious Garvan Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1949 for her pioneering work in the field of nutrition. She was born on May 4, 1884 in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of Irish immigrants. She excelled at Peoria High School and received a scholarship for college. She attended Vassar College for a year and then transferred to the University of Chicago, receiving a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1904, followed by an M.S. degree in 1905. Morgan spent the next several years teaching and then returned to work with Dr. Julius Steiglitz for her Ph.D. During this period, Agnes Fay married Arthur Ivason Morgan, a high school teacher of the classics as well as a football coach.

In 1915, Morgan accepted a position as an assistant professor of nutrition in the College of Agriculture at the University of California, Berkeley. She had decided to switch to the field of nutrition and food science in order to be able to work professionally as a chemist. She was promoted to full professor in 1923 and remained at Berkeley until she retired in 1954.

Many of her research projects centered on vitamins. She determined the vitamin A and vitamin C content of a variety of foods. She also studied the effects of vitamin deficiencies in animals. Morgan showed that heat denatures proteins and thus decreases their nutritional value.

Through her groundbreaking research on the metabolic impact of vitamins A, D, and B, she recognized that vitamin deficiencies could cause certain health-related effects. She was the first to detect the role of a B vitamin in adrenal function and skin and hair pigmentation. She also coordinated one of the first nationwide studies of the nutritional status of U.S. citizens.

Morgan founded Alpha Nu, an undergraduate honor society for home economics students; the California Home Economics Association; and Iota Sigma Pi, a national honor society for women chemists.

1. Women in Chemistry: Agnes Fay Morgan
2. Women Chemists: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?

1. American Chemists and Chemical Engineers; Miles, W. D., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1976; pp 348-349.
2. Miller, J. A. Women in Chemistry. In Women of Science: Righting the Record; Kass-Simon, G., Farnes, P., Eds.; Indiana University Press: Bloomington, 1993; pp 319-320.