Yalow, Rosalyn

Yalow, Rosalyn (b. Sussman)

(1921–  ) medical physicist; born in New York City. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois (1945) and taught at Hunter College (New York City) (1946–50). In association with Dr. Solomon A. Berson, she developed radioimmunoassay (RIA)—using radioactive "tracers" to measure minute amounts of hormones, antibodies, and other substances in the body. For her contributions to explaining the role of hormones in body chemistry, she shared the Nobel Prize in medicine (1977), only the second woman to receive the award in this field. She did her research at the Veterans Hospital in the Bronx (1950–80) and the City University of New York (1968–74).