The Resume

(July 19, 1921-May 30, 2011)
Born in Bronx, New York
Birth name was Rosalyn Sussman
With Solomon Berson, developed radioimmunoassay (RIA), a technique using radioactive isotopes and antibodies to measure small quantities of biological substances
Co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1977)

Why she might be annoying:

She was stubborn, noting 'My mother said it was fortunate that I chose to do acceptable things, for if I had chosen otherwise, no one could have deflected me from my path.'
She was a workaholic who had no hobbies and traveled only to give lectures and attend conferences.
Her and Berson's first paper on RIA, reporting its use to measure insulin levels in diabetics, was rejected by 'Science' and 'The Journal of Chemical Investigation' because it went against the prevailing wisdom that hormones like insulin were too small to trigger an antibody response.
Some people criticized her for not sharing her Nobel Prize money with the family of Berson, who had died in 1972.

Why she might not be annoying:

She graduated high school at age 15 and from City College of New York at 19.
She had trouble getting into graduate school because, as Purdue put it, 'She is a woman. She is Jewish. She is from New York.'
She got into the University of Illinois as a teaching assistant when an opening was left because so many men were being drafted into the armed forces.
Despite its commercial potential, she and Berson refused to take out a patent on RIA in order to encourage its use by other scientists.
After Berson died, she asked that the RIA lab be named after him so his name would continue to appear on her scientific papers.
She said, 'Initially, new ideas are rejected. Later, they become dogma if you're right. And if you're really lucky, you can publish your rejections as part of your Nobel presentation.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 20th Century Scientists
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 59]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [July] (Ranked: 7191921)
• I am a Bronxite
• I Attended City College of New York
• I Attended Hunter College [New York City]
• I Attended University of Illinois [Urbana, Champaign]
• I Died in 2011 (Ranked: 89)
• I Died in the City I Was Born In
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I Had a Stroke [Cerebral Vascular Accident]
• Man's World
• National Women's Hall of Fame (Ranked: 1993)
• Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (Ranked: 1977)
• People Magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People [1977]
• Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity
• Profiles 37001-37250 (Ranked: 37170)
• Scientists

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 90 Votes: 51.11% Annoying