Gladys Emerson’s first major achievement, the isolation of pure crystalline vitamin E, was just the beginning of a long, productive scientific career. Born on July 1, 1903 in Caldwell, Kansas, she was the only child of Otis and Louise (Williams) Anderson. By the time Gladys entered the Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha, she had lived in three states: Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. She graduated from college in 1925, earning both a B.S in chemistry and an A.B. in history.

At Stanford University, Gladys earned a master’s degree in history in 1926 and later that year became the head of the Department of Social Sciences at Roosevelt Junior High School in Oklahoma City, thus fulfilling the wish of her parents that she become a teacher. However she did not teach, instead working on curriculum. Finding this unsatisfactory, she accepted a fellowship in nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley. By 1932 she earned her Ph.D. in animal nutrition and biochemistry, with a minor in organic chemistry. Later that year she married a colleague, Oliver Huddleston Emerson.

The Emersons spent the next 18 months as postdoctoral associates at Gottingen University in Germany, where she was very fortunate to work with Adolf Windaus and Adolph Butenandt, both of whom were later awarded Nobel Prizes. Because of Nazism, Emerson did not enjoy her stay in Germany, even though she gained important scientific experience.

After returning to the U.S., Emerson became a research associate at the Institute of Experimental Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. By 1936, she and her collaborators, especially Herbert M. Evans, isolated pure crystalline vitamin E from wheat germ. In 1942, Gladys Emerson left Berkeley to become head of the department of animal nutrition of the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research in Rahway, NJ. Over the next fourteen years she carried out animal deprivation studies of the vitamin B complex in order to determine what diseases and illnesses would result; she published several papers on this research. While at Merck, she contributed to the war effort; from 1950–1953 Emerson was also a research associate at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research where she investigated the relationship between diet and cancer.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) offered Gladys Emerson the position of professor of nutrition and chairman of the department of home economics. She accepted and, through a generous gift of Rhesus monkeys from the Merck Company, was able to continue her research at UCLA. She remained there from 1956 until her retirement in 1971. In 1962 she became vice chairman of the department of public health.

In 1952, Gladys Emerson was awarded the Garvan Medal by the American Chemical Society for her research. She was also elected to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (1943) and she was named Woman of the Month by the American Women̻s Association (1951). In 1969 she was appointed by President Nixon as vice-chairman of the Panel on the Provision of Food as It Affects the Consumer.

In addition to her scientific work, Gladys Emerson was a prize-winning amateur photographer who loved to travel and watch spectator sports such as football and basketball.

Gladys Emerson died of cancer on January 18, 1984 in her home in California.

1. University of California In Memoriam (Select “Gladys Emerson In Memoriam 1989”)

1. Haber, Louis. Women Pioneers of Science; Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, Inc.: New York, 1979; pp 73–82.
2. Svoronos, Paris. “Gladys Ludwina Anderson Emerson (1903–1984).” In Women in Chemistry and Physics, A Biobibliographic Sourcebook; Grinstein, Louise S.; Rose, Rose K.; Rafailobich, Miriam H., Eds.; Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1993; pp 180–190.
3. Notable Scientists from 1900 to Present; Narins, Brigham, Ed.; The Gale Group: Farmington Hills, MI, 2001; Vol. 2, p 662.
4. Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science; Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, Eds.; Routledge: New York; 2000; Volume 1, A–K, pp 420–421.