Nobel Prize

A Look Back at the IRP’s History-Making Women

NIH Archives Document the Tremendous Importance of Female Scientists

two female technicians working in the lab

Women’s History Month is celebrated every March, and women scientists have undoubtedly made invaluable contributions to IRP research over the course of NIH’s history. Despite this, women still remain under-represented in biomedical science at NIH and elsewhere today, prompting the IRP to make supporting the careers of female researchers an important priority. While NIH works to rectify the gender imbalance in scientific research, it’s important to take time to celebrate the many women who, even when confronted with significant historical obstacles, have made a name for themselves in the lab and on the pages of scientific journals. Join me in taking a look through the archives of the Office of NIH History & Stetten Museum to learn about some of the many women scientists who have been at the forefront of science and administration at NIH.

IRP’s Harvey Alter Awarded Nobel Prize

NIH Researcher’s Pioneering Work Led to Discovery of Hepatitis C

Dr. Harvey Alter

When the phone rang at 4:15 in the morning, IRP senior scientist Harvey J. Alter, M.D., was annoyed. He didn’t answer it. After the third try, he reluctantly got out of bed and took his phone out to the hallway.

“Before I could yell at the person, he said, ‘This is Stockholm calling,’” Dr. Alter recalls. “And then I got stopped in my tracks. Then the moment of disbelief and awe comes over you.”

The man from Stockholm informed Dr. Alter that he had won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. He shared the prize with Michael Houghton, Ph.D., of the University of Alberta, Canada, and Charles M. Rice, Ph.D., of Rockefeller University in New York.

Let's Have Some Fun with NIH History

I've spent the last couple months scouring the NIH archives for the most interesting trivia tidbits I could find. Now you can entertain your colleagues and friends with these 10 fun facts about NIH!

1) Native Americans camped along the stream on the east side of campus beginning about 3,000 years ago. They left choppers, arrow heads, and other material evidence behind.

Native American stone artifact (left) and the stream on the NIH main campus where it was found (right)

Honoring Two Legendary IRP Scientists

ribbon cutting at the exhibit's opening

NIH history is rife with legends, scientists who have made remarkable discoveries and incalculable contributions to the health and longevity of humankind. There are living legends; just peruse the “Honors” page on the IRP website to see what I mean. And there are greats who are gone but certainly not forgotten.

See NIH through Branson Brothers' Lenses: Bill

Bill Branson has been a photographer at the National Institutes of Health since 1984, when he left the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed. There, he had photographed the necropsy of the first chimpanzee in space, “Ham,” named for Hollomon Aero MED Air Base.

Da Vinci surgery robot used by Peter Pinto at NIH NCI