Cori, Gerty Theresa, 1896-1957

Gerty Cori, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1896. Educated by tutors and in private schools, Gerty decided at the age of 16 to study medicine. She entered the Realgymnasium at Tetschen, from which she graduated in 1914, and then proceeded to the Medical School of the German University of Prague. While in medical school, Gerty met Carl Ferdinand Cori, a fellow student who shared both her loves of skiing and mountain climbing and her interest in laboratory research. In 1920 the two published the results of their first research collaboration, received their medical degrees, and married each other.

Gerty Cori's first research position was as an assistant in the Karolinen Children's Hospital in Vienna. In 1922 Carl Cori emigrated to the United States to join the staff of the New York State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases in Buffalo, New York. Gerty Cori emigrated a few months later, starting as an assistant pathologist at the Institute and later rising to assistant biochemist. In 1928 the Coris became naturalized U.S. citizens.

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