Dr.+Barbara+McClintock

Barbara McClintock By: CindyL754





Early Life Barbara McClintock was born on June 16th 1902. She was born in Hartford Connecticut. She was the third born into the family, right after Mignon, and Marjorie. After she was born Malcolm rider, or Tom, was born. Her parents were Sara and Thomas McClintock, which were both physicians. Born with her origin al name, Eleanor, she grew to become a tomboy; she had no interest with dolls, but rather with science. Her parents thought Eleanor was not the right name for her. And they soon changed her name to Barbara. Although they raised her together, Barbara had a strong connection with her father, but not so much with her mother. Before her first day of school, she had lived with her aunt and her uncle. And after when her family moved to New York in 1908, she had already started high school. Professional Life After her secondary education, she graduated early, knowing her needs to learn science. She planned to continue this study of science at Cornell University of Agriculture. At Cornell, she worked with student governments and sorority for a while. Then, she started to study botany. (Botany is the study of Plants.) She right after she earned her BSc. (A BSc is an undergraduate degree that you use for about 3-5 years) in 1921. Barbara took her first Field in 1921, a course similar to the Harvard University. This course was made by C.B. Hutchison. C.B. Hutchison was a plant breeder and genetics. He was impressed with Barbra’s ability to calculate science. He called her to try out the course at Cornell in 1922.Even though women were usually not allowed to study genetics, they let Barbara because of her MA- earned in 1925 and PhD- earned in 1927 which were both awarded for botany. Soon, Barbara became a botany instructor and started to study a new type of field: Cytogenetics in Maize (Maize is a type of corn grown on fields, like corn on the cob). In 1944, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Barbara began to study about the color patterns on Maize. AWARADS In 1947, she received an achievement award from American Associations of University Women. In 1967, Barbara earned the Kimber Genetics award, and then in 1970, she earned another award: the National Medal of Science. This award was given by Richard Nixon. In honor of working and discovering with them, the Cold Spring Harbor named a building after her name in 1973. She got the Louis and Bert Freedman Foundation award, as well as the Lewis S. Rosensteil Award in in 1978. She was also awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Medical research. Then she was awarded wolf prize in medicine and the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal given by the Genetics Society of America. In 1982 she was presented with the Louisa Gross Horowitz Prize from Columbia University. Probably her most well-known prize is the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. She received this award in 1983. She was the first woman to receive that prize unshared. This prize was given by the Nobel Foundation for discovering mobile genetic elements. Because of this prized, many have compared to a scientist named Gregor Mendel. After few years, she died shortly after a sickness. She died on September 2, 1992, in Huntington, NY

FUN FACTS
 * Sometimes, Barbara was referred to as the “Corn Lady”
 * Did you know? That Maize, or corn, grows on every continent except Antarctica
 * Did you know? That one bushel of corn can sweeten more than 450 cans of Coca-Cola
 * The main ingredient in pet food is corn

Citations "Barbara McClintock." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 June 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2013. Fine, Edith hope Barbara McClintock Spring field: NJ Enslow Publishers, 1998. Print.

Mary Kittredge Barbara McClintock Biologist New York: Chelsea house publishers, 1991. print.

"Britannica School." //Britannica School //. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.