Edith Hinkley Quimby - Pioneering Teacher of Radiology
Edith Quimby was born in Illinois in 1891. She received a full scholarship to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and graduated in 1912 with a BS in mathematics and physics. She went on to graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, with an MA in physics in 1916.
She married Shirley L. Quimby, and they moved to New York in 1919. Quimby worked as an Assistant Physicist at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York as an assistant to Gioacchino Failla in his radiation laboratory. She was the only woman in the United States doing medical physics research at that time. Her research involved finding the optimum arrangement of radium needles for treating tumors. Quimby also instituted a program of using "film badges," paper-covered x-ray film strips, to monitor exposure to radiation. She was promoted to Associate Physicist in 1932.
In 1942, Quimby and Failla joined the staff at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. She was named an Associate Professor of Radiological Physics. Her research involved artificial radioisotopes and using radioactive sodium and iodine to diagnose medical conditions. She was considered a leader in nuclear medicine. Among her successful students was Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, who shared a Nobel Prize in 1977 for her work in RIA (radioimmunoassay) research.
Quimby was named Professor of Radiological Physics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in 1954, and Emeritus Professor of Radiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in 1960. She is best remembered for her work in determining the level of radiation that patients could tolerate, thereby providing early practical procedures for doctors to more safely use radiation therapy in a clinical setting.
Edith Quimby died in 1982. She had four children.
Books:
Radioactive Isotopes in Clinical Practice. Lea & Febiger, 1958; with Sergei Feitelberg and Solomon Silver.
Safe Handling of Radioactive Isotopes in Medical Practice. Macmillan, 1960.
Physical Foundations of Radiology. Harper, 1970; with Paul N. Goodwin.Honors and Awards:
- Fellow, American Physical Society
- Fellow, American College of Radiology
- Janeway Medal, American Radium Society 1940
- Honorary Sc.D., Whitman College 1940
- Gold Medal, Radiological Society of North America 1941
- Achievement Medal, International Women's Exposition of Arts and Industries 1947
- Lord and Taylor American Design Award 1949
- Honorary Sc.D., Rutgers University 1957
- Medal of the American Cancer Society 1957
- Gold Medal, Inter-American College of Radiology 1958
- Gold Medal, American College of Radiology 1963
- Vice President American Radium Society, 1929
- President, American Radium Society, 1954
- Chairman, National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements Committee
Sources:
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~cwp/Phase2/Quimby,_Edith_Hinkley@842345678.html
http://www.orcbs.msu.edu/radiation/radhistory/edithquimby.html
http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HF/Biographies%20-%20Women/quimby.htm
http://www.aboutnuclear.org/view.cgi?fC=History,Hall_of_Fame,Edith_Quimby
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