10 Female Scientists of Color You Should Know

Ruby Hirose (Photo via Smithsonian Institution Archives)

Ruby Hirose

Ruby Hirose was a biochemist and bacteriologist who conducted research that led to groundbreaking treatments for infantile paralysis and other illnesses, including polio and diphtheria. She also conducted research into hay fever treatments, helping to increase the intensity of pollen extracts in order to desensitize allergy sufferers.

Hirose was born in 1904, in Auburn, Washington. Her parents, Shiusaku and Tome Hirose, were both Issei, first-generation Japanese who emigrated to the United States. Both clearly valued education, as all of their children did well in school and went on the earn college degrees. Ruby was especially accomplished, given that she the first of the Nisei, or children of Japanese immigrants, in the region who went on to earn a graduate degree.

Hirose was granted a Bachelors in Science in pharmacology from the University of Washington in 1928. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati in 1932. After her graduation, she continued to work at the University until she was hired by the William S. Merrell Company, where she completed much of her work on serums and antitoxins.

By the World War II was underway, Hirose was already an established and accomplished scientist. Unlike other Japanese-Americans, she avoided internment camps because she was based in Ohio, far from any ports that would have been accessible to supposed Japanese spies. However, other members of her family, including her siblings and father, were sent to the camps simply because they resided in coastal Washington state.

In 1940, she was one of ten women recognized by the American Chemical Society for her accomplishments in the field of chemistry. She died in Pennsylvania in 1960. Her remaining family buried her in the Auburn Pioneer Cemetery in her hometown of Auburn, Washington.

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