NAME: YEEHSHIN JILL GAYO

CNU EMAIL ADDRESS: main.22000784@cnu.edu.ph

DEGREE PROGRAMME/YEAR: BSED-SCIENCE/ FIRST YEAR-BLOC A

Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

“We must believe in ourselves or no one else will

believe in us; we must match our aspirations with
the competence, courage and determination to
succeed; and we must feel a personal responsibility
to ease path for those who come afterwar”. – Dr.
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Being consistent, determined, and hard-working

person are just the major characteristics of Dr.
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow towards success. She was
born in the Bronx, New York and was raised in a
Jewish household. Her parents are Clara and Simon
Sussman who immigrated to the United States from
an Eastern Europe, and had a brother named
Alexander. Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow went to
Walton High School in their city. After high school,
she entered Hunter College (all-female) with free
tuition where her mother hopefully thinks that she
would become a teacher but instead, she took the
opportunity to study and learn about physics.

On her college days, Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

initially knew how to type and was landed a part-time job as a secretary to Dr. Rodulf Schoenheimer
who is a biochemist of Columbia University. Her perception about believing that there wouldn’t be any
such respective graduate school who will admit and financially support a woman bring her to take
another job. She was also a secretary to Michael Heidelberger a biochemist at the same university which
initially hired her with their condition that she will be studying stenography. As a student who is
passionate, Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow excelled in her studies and graduated from Hunter College major
in physics in January 1941 at the age of 19. Her adherence persistency to science also lends her a chance
to take any university’s candidacy program with an astounding resume.

Though we think that life after college would be now comfortable and easy for us but, it was just like an
introduction of our own stories. Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow really did a hard time towards her goals and
ambitions by simply undergoing some rejections, discriminations, and the aspect of inequalities “as a
Jew and a Woman”. But then when the right time comes, she was lucky to occupy the vacant graduate
position of one in the enlisted men at University of Illinois (Urbana) as a student and teaching assistant
in searching for a fellowship. Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow was still hesitated about everything on her and
when she volunteered at one of the university’s medical labs in experiencing the new emerging field
which is the radiotherapy, and as a result, she was full of curiosity and become interested on it then
joined the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital.

Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow continues her work teaming with Dr. Solomon A. Berson who is also an
accomplished medical doctor. Both uncovers the mechanics of insulin injections to their early research
projects and using radioactive iodine, they were able to develop a breakthrough scientific method called
“Radioimmunoassay (RIA)”. After that, she was elected by the National Academy of Sciences, became a
research professor (Department of Medicine – Mount Sinai), and received the Nobel Prize in 1977 for
Physiology or Medicine. The success of Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow had changed the negative perception
of most people of what a woman can do. Her sacrifices before she died (March 30, 2011), leaves a
remarkable realization about the importance of equalities and featuring her has the portrayal that
nothing is impossible with a desired soul.

References:

Dr. Rosalyn Yalow: Groundbreaking VA medical researcher and Nobel Prize laureate. (2022, July 15). U.S
Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from
https://www.va.gov/HISTORY/Features/Yalow_Spark_exhibit_005.asp

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow. (2022, October 19). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalyn_Sussman_Yalow