Doctoral Studies at the University of Chicago

• Main Author: Warsh, Cheryl Krasnick
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2024
• Subjects: haida
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197632543.003.0004; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58222992/oso-9780197632543-chapter-4.pdf

Abstract Frances Oldham loved student life at the University of Chicago, studying under Eugene Geiling, a distinguished South African pharmacologist. Oldham was his first graduate student and became a lifelong mentor and friend. She learned to use sensitive language when describing animal experimentation to circumvent anti-vivisectionist opposition. Geiling’s team traveled to Haida G’waii to participate in the last legal whale hunts for research, although crews were leery of a woman on a whaling ship. In 1937, Oldham participated in the study of Elixir of Sulfanilamide, an early antibiotic laced with antifreeze, leading to many deaths, and the amendment of the Food and Drug Act to require drug safety. Oldham received the first pharmacology doctorate at Chicago in 1938, but with an expired student visa, she returned home. She unsuccessfully searched for permanent work, despairing as her male colleagues found appointments.