biology

Neena Schwartz

Neena Schwartz is a biology 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 Neena Schwartz rather than just read about it. In short: Neena Betty Schwartz (December 10, 1926 – April 15, 2018) was an American endocrinologist and William Deering Professor of Endocrinology Emerita in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. She was best known for her work on female reproductive biology and the regulation of hormonal signaling pathways, particularly for the discovery of the signaling hormone inhibin.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Neena Betty Schwartz (December 10, 1926 – April 15, 2018) was an American endocrinologist and William Deering Professor of Endocrinology Emerita in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. She was best known for her work on female reproductive biology and the regulation of hormonal signaling pathways, particularly for the discovery of the signaling hormone inhibin. Schwartz was an active feminist advocate for women in science throughout her career; she was a founding member of the Association for Women in Science organization in 1971 and shared the founding presidency with Judith Pool. She also co-founded the Women in Endocrinology group under the auspices of the Endocrine Society, served terms as the president of the Endocrine Society and the Society for the Study of Reproduction, and was recognized for her exceptional mentorship of women scientists. In 2010, she published a memoir of her life in science, A Lab of My Own, in which she came out as lesbian.

Early life and education Schwartz was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1926. to a family of Russian descent who she has described as politically active. She received her bachelor's degree from Goucher College (a women's college at the time) in 1948. Despite originally being interested in English and journalism, she became interested in physiology during her undergraduate studies and spent summers conducting undergraduate research with Curt Richter at Johns Hopkins University, and separately at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. After graduation, Schwartz began her graduate studies at Northwestern University, where she received her Ph.D. in physiology in 1953 under the supervision of Allen Lein. She was the only female Ph.D. student in the department at the time.

Academic career In 1954 Schwartz was hired as a physiology instructor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, which she left a year later to take a position at Michael Reese Hospital. In 1961 she returned to the University of Illinois with tenure, as the only woman in her department. She moved to her alma mater Northwestern University in 1973, becoming the chair of the biology department of the medical school a year later and serving for four years. In 1974, Schwartz organized the founding of the Program for Reproductive Research at Northwestern, which would evolve into the Center for Reproductive Science in 1987 with Schwartz as its director. Schwartz was among the very few women who served in the 1960s on American Physiological Society program committees, was the first woman president of the Society for the Study of Reproduction from 1977 to 1978, and was the second woman president of the Endocrine Society from 1982 to 1983. Schwartz retired from her academic positions in 1999.

Research Schwartz's research group studied the feedback mechanisms that govern hormonal signaling pathways in the female reproductive cycle, using rats as an animal model. Her work played a major role in the developing the modern understanding of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis in endocrinology and was particularly significant in discovering the hormone inhibin. While investigating the secretion of gonadotropins by the pituitary, Schwartz and her research group observed that then-dominant models of the reproductive cycle did not explain the observed changes in levels of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone in response to gonadotropin-releasing hormone. A hypothetical additional hormone given the name inhibin had been suggested years prior based on work with male animals, potentially being secreted from the testes. Schwartz's key insight was to instead investigate secretion from the ovaries in female subjects. The existence of inhibin in ovarian follicular fluid was confirmed by the Schwartz group in collaboration with Cornelia Channing in the mid-1970s. Inhibin – which plays a role in both male and female hormonal signaling – was molecularly characterized in the mid-1980s as a protein dimer. Inhibin levels have since been identified as one of several biomarkers that can be used to screen for Down syndrome in the fetus by testing a woman's blood.

Awards and honors Schwartz received the Williams Distinguished Service Award from the Endocrine Society in 1985 and the Carl Hartman Research Award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction in 1992. Schwartz was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986 and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992. She served on the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2000 to 2002 and received their Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. Neena has also received the following honors: Northwestern Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award, Women in Endocrinology Mentor of the Year Award, Distinguished Educator Award from the endocrine Society, Northwestern School of Medicine alumni Merit Award, and Pioneer in Reproductive Research Award. Page text.

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Neena Schwartz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Neena Schwartz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Neena Schwartz 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 Neena Schwartz 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 Neena Schwartz

In research: Neena Schwartz appears in biology 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 Neena Schwartz 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: Neena Schwartz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1926 births, 2018 deaths, 21st-century American women, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Neena Schwartz 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 Neena Schwartz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Neena Schwartz 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 Neena Schwartz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neena Schwartz in simple terms?

Why does Neena Schwartz matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Neena Schwartz?

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 Neena Schwartz.