chemistry

Mildred Rebstock

Mildred Rebstock is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mildred Rebstock rather than just read about it. In short: Mildred Catherine Rebstock (November 29, 1919 – February 17, 2011) was an American pharmaceutical chemist. She and her team were the first to fully synthesize chloromycetin, also known as chloramphenicol.

Key takeaways

Mildred Rebstock belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mildred Rebstock to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mildred Rebstock from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mildred Catherine Rebstock (November 29, 1919 – February 17, 2011) was an American pharmaceutical chemist. She and her team were the first to fully synthesize chloromycetin, also known as chloramphenicol. This was the first instance of an antibiotic being fully synthesized. The World Health Organization classifies it as critically important for human medicine.

Early life and education Mildred Catherine Rebstock, the daughter of Redna and Adolph Rebstock, was born Nov. 29, 1919 in Elkhart, Indiana. In 1938 she graduated from Elkhart High School, and then went on to further her education at North Central College. During her time at North Central, she was a member of a biology honors society, Beta Beta Beta, and was a member of the college's zoology club. She also retained a flawless grade-point average while studying under professors I.A. Koten and Harold Eigenbrodt of chemistry and zoology respectively. It was with these two professors where she found the inspiration to apply to their alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue a doctoral degree after she graduated North Central with a bachelor's in 1942. With her impeccable grade-point average and passion for the sciences, she was able to receive a full fellowship to research ascorbic acid while studying at the university She earned her master's degree in 1943 and her doctorate in 1945. In 1945, Mildred was one of the graduate students initiated into Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.

Professional career Dr. Rebstock was hired at Parke-Davis Research Labs from 1945 to 1977 as a junior research chemist and was later promoted to a research leader in 1959. Around this time she and her team were researching a newly discovered antibiotic streptomycin, first discovered by Albert Schatz. Parke-Davis's team of Dr. Rebstock and her team consisting of John Controulis, Harry Crooks, and Quentin Bartz discovered that greater chemical stability could be achieved through catalytic hydrogenation of streptomycin, and this new compound was named dihydrostreptomycin. This discovery was simultaneously made by a team at Merck & Co. Although the use of this antibiotic in humans has ceased, it is still used in veterinary medicine. Soon after her work with dihydrostreptomycin, Dr. Rebstock was tasked with synthesizing a new antibiotic found by John Ehrlich in a culture of Streptomyces venezuela. The molecule of this antibiotic was much simpler than those of previous antibiotics, which made Rebstock's task easier. It was discovered that the key constituent of this molecule was a nitrobenzene ring, which was something the lab had already had prior experience with. Rebstock had found a way to fully synthesize this antibiotic around November 1947. This was a rare case where the synthetization of a molecule was more cost effective than fermenting it through organic processes. The team published their work in 1949. Because of the availability of chloromycetin after Rebstock's work, it was abundantly used to treat Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhoid fever, and is still used today as a secondary course of action for extreme cases of meningitis, cholera, and other infectious bacterial diseases. Since its discovery, chloromycetin has been linked to an increased risk of fatal aplastic anemia leading to a decline in its use in humans in the United States. Although it has fallen out of favor in developed nations it is still a vital antibiotic used abundantly in developing nations.

Because of her groundbreaking research, Time magazine devoted an article to her in 1949, noting that "the achievement was due to teamwork. But a large part of the credit goes to pretty Dr. Mildred Rebstock, a 28-year-old research chemist." Dr. Rebstock advocated for women in scientific research during an interview with the Smithsonian Institution Archives, she stated that, of all the researchers in the field only about three percent of them were women, but she would remain hopeful for the future. In 1950, Rebstock was awarded the "Science Woman of the Year" by the Women's National Press Club of Washington DC organization, and it was presented to her by President Truman.

Death and remembrance Rebstock died at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI on February 17, 2011. A historical marker about Rebstock's career and honors can be found on the campus of North Central College, near the football field.

References

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mildred Rebstock

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mildred Rebstock claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mildred Rebstock before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mildred Rebstock ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mildred Rebstock

In research: Mildred Rebstock appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mildred Rebstock in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mildred Rebstock is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1919 births, 2011 deaths, 20th-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mildred Rebstock outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mildred Rebstock in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mildred Rebstock means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mildred Rebstock out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mildred Rebstock in simple terms?

Why does Mildred Rebstock matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mildred Rebstock?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mildred Rebstock.