physics

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow is a physics 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow rather than just read about it. In short: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (July 19, 1921 – May 30, 2011) was an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) for development of the radioimmunoassay technique. She was the second woman (after Gerty Cori), and the first American-born woman, to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (July 19, 1921 – May 30, 2011) was an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) for development of the radioimmunoassay technique. She was the second woman (after Gerty Cori), and the first American-born woman, to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Biography

Childhood Rosalyn Sussman Yalow was born in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Clara (née Zipper) and Simon Sussman, and was raised in a Jewish household. She went to Walton High School (Bronx), New York City. After high school, she attended the all-female, tuition-free Hunter College, where her mother hoped she would learn to become a teacher. Instead, Yalow decided to study physics.

College Yalow knew how to type, and was able to get a part-time position as a secretary to Dr. Rudolf Schoenheimer, a leading biochemist at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. She did not believe that any respectable graduate school would admit and financially support a woman, so she took another job as a secretary to Dr. Michael Heidelberger, another biochemist at Columbia, who hired her on the condition that she studied stenography. She graduated from Hunter College in January 1941. A few years later, she received an offer to be a teaching assistant in physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received this offer partially because World War II had just begun and many men went off to fight, and the university opted to offer women education and jobs to avoid being shut down. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she was the only woman among the University's 400 members, and the first since 1917. Yalow earned her PhD in 1945. The next summer, she took two tuition-free physics courses under government auspices at New York University.

Marriage and children She married fellow student Aaron Yalow, the son of a rabbi, in June 1943. They had two children, Benjamin and Elanna Yalow, and kept a kosher home. Yalow did not believe in "balancing her career with her home life" and instead incorporated her home life wherever she could into her work life. However, she viewed the traditional roles of a homemaker as a priority, and devoted herself to traditional duties associated with motherhood and being a wife. Throughout her career, she tended to shun feminist organizations, but still advocated for including more women in science. While she believed the reason she had certain opportunities in physics was because of the war, she thought that the reason that the number of women in this field decreased after the war was due to a lack of interest. Yalow saw the feminist movement as a challenge to her traditional beliefs and thought that it encouraged women not to fulfill their duties to become mothers and wives.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rosalyn Sussman Yalow claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

In research: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow appears in physics 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow 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: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2011 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rosalyn Sussman Yalow 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Rosalyn Sussman Yalow in simple terms?

Why does Rosalyn Sussman Yalow matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow?

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 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow.