Jolane Baumgarten Solomon

Jolane Baumgarten Solomon was born in New York City on September 23, 1927. As her parents separated when she was quite young and her mother was often unable to care for her, she spent a few years at the Pleasantville Cottage School, a school for orphans north of New York City. Her father died when she was ten and when she was thirteen she returned to New York to live with her mother, a bookkeeper. Her mother's mental illness made it impossible for her to continue working and she and Jolane went on welfare. Upon graduating from Hunter College High School, Solomon took evening classes at New York University and Hunter College while working in the calculation division of the Manhattan Project and as a glass-washer and laboratory technician at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. While at the Rockefeller Institute, she assisted with experiments focusing on cancer and malaria in rats and became increasingly interested in scientific research.

Upon receiving her bachelor's degree in zoology from Hunter College in 1952, Solomon moved to Cambridge, to attend Radcliffe Graduate School. While working towards her master's degree in biology, she boarded with John Kenneth Galbraith and his wife Catherine, who became lifelong friends. In 1957, she was married at their house to Bernard Solomon, then an advisor to Congressman Foster Furcolo. (After Furcolo was elected governor of Massachusetts, Bernard Solomon served as purchasing agent for the state and later became a vice-president of Stop and Shop grocery stores and Patriot Bank.) Although Solomon's advisor in the biology department discouraged her from pursuing a Ph.D., she continued her studies at the Medical Science Program at Harvard Medical School, and received her doctorate in biology and physiology in 1958. While working towards her doctorate, she served as a teaching fellow and wrote science stories for the Harvard News Service, many of which were picked up by national newspapers. After receiving her degree, Solomon worked as a post-doctorate fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, studying obese mice in hopes of finding a cure for diabetes. In 1962, Solomon and her husband adopted a baby boy and she hoped to continue her work at the School of Public Health in a part-time capacity. However, her supervisor would not agree to this, and so Solomon sought employment at Boston College, joining the biology department in 1963.

At Boston College, Solomon taught a popular endocrinology course and was dedicated to promoting and furthering the role of women in science and research. To this end, she chaired a committee to study the role of women at the college. (At the time she joined the faculty, the college of arts and sciences did not admit women undergraduates.) She also served as a part-time ombudsman, counseling students on changing courses, finding housing and part-time jobs, and personal problems. Further, she pioneered a course on human sexuality, which she taught with Father John McCall, a professor of psychology and religion. In the 1970s, Solomon conducted research on the effects of marijuana on female rats, finding that, like estrogen, marijuana caused a significant growth in the size of the uterus. She was promoted to full professor in 1980, thus becoming the first female full professor in the natural sciences at Boston College.

In addition to her work at Boston College, Solomon served on a number of boards, including Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Children's Hospital Medical Center, and the Center of Psychological Studies in the Nuclear Age. Besides their son Samuel, the Solomons had a daughter, Sarah, known as Sally, born in 1964. Solomon died March 9, 2001.