Mary Peters Fieser

Mary Peters Fieser (May 27, 1909 – March 22, 1997) was an American chemist best known for the many books she wrote with her husband Louis Fieser.

Mary Peters Fieser
Born(1909-05-27)May 27, 1909
Atchison, Kansas, US
DiedMarch 22, 1997(1997-03-22) (aged 87)
Belmont, Massachusetts, US
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBryn Mawr College, US; Radcliffe College, US
Known forsynthesizing vitamin K; writing organic chemistry textbooks
Spouse(s)Louis Fieser (1932–1977)
AwardsGarvan–Olin Medal (1971)

She was born Mary Peters in 1909 in Atchison, Kansas.[1] Her father, Robert Peters, was a college professor of English: the family later moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he accepted a position at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). Mary and her sister Ruth were educated in a private girls’ high school, and both went on to study at Bryn Mawr College. Mary graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1930 with a B.A. in chemistry.[1]

It was at Bryn Mawr that Mary Peters met her future husband, a professor of chemistry who became her mentor. When Louis Fieser left Bryn Mawr in 1930 to join the faculty at Harvard University, Mary Peters decided to follow him and pursue an advanced degree in chemistry. She had to officially enroll at nearby Radcliffe College in order to take chemistry courses at Harvard and could not escape the gender discrimination of her era.[1] One professor of analytical chemistry in particular, Gregory Baxter, would not allow her in the laboratory with the male students: rather, she had to carry out her experiments (without supervision) in the deserted basement of a nearby building.[2] She was awarded a Radcliffe M.A. in chemistry in 1936, but decided not to pursue a Ph.D.: "I could see I was not going to get along well on my own, [but as Mrs. Fieser] I could do as much chemistry as I wanted."[3]

Mary Peters married her mentor in 1932, and their scientific collaboration continued until Louis Fieser's death in 1977.[1] Their early research together focused on the chemistry of quinones[4] and steroids,[5] and they developed syntheses of Vitamin K, cortisone, and the antimalarial compound lapinone.[6] However the Fiesers were best known for their numerous books. Their first joint textbook, Organic Chemistry (1944),[7][8] became very successful and influential on both sides of the Atlantic because of the originality in the presentation of the material, and went through many editions. In 1967 the Fiesers began to publish Reagents for Organic Synthesis and produced six volumes before Louis Fieser's death:[9] Mary continued the project with collaborators.[10] They also published a Style Guide for Chemists in 1959,[11] as well as a seminal monograph on Steroids the same year.[12]

Mary Fieser never had a paid position at Harvard, although she received the title of Research Fellow of Chemistry about twenty-nine years after she began work there.[1] She was awarded the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1971,[13] and the Louis and Mary Fieser Laboratory for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry at Harvard University is named after her and her husband.[14] In 2008, Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology created Mary Fieser Postdoctoral Fellowship to support women and underrepresented minorities in chemistry.[15]

Mary Fieser died on March 22, 1997, in Belmont, Massachusetts.[14] She never had children, but was always surrounded by cats, illustrations of which found their way into the prefaces of many of her books.

References
  1. "Louis Fieser and Mary Fieser", Science History Institute, retrieved 21 March 2018.
  2. Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey W. (1998), "Mary Fieser", Women in Chemistry: Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-20th Century, Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, ISBN 0-8412-3522-8
  3. Pramer, Stacey (1985), "Mary Fieser: A transitional figure in the history of women", J. Chem. Educ., 62 (3): 186, Bibcode:1985JChEd..62..186P, doi:10.1021/ed062p186
  4. Fieser, Louis F.; Peters, Mary A. (1931), "The Potentials and the Decomposition Reactions of Ortho Qunones in Acid Solution", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 53 (2): 793–805, doi:10.1021/ja01353a053. Fieser, Louis F.; Peters, Mary A. (1931), "The Addition of Diazomethane and some of its Derivatives to α-Naphthoquinone", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 53 (11): 4080–93, doi:10.1021/ja01362a024. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1933), "The Conversion of Phthaloylnaphthalenes and Naphthoyl-2-benzoic Acids into Benzanthraquinones", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 55 (8): 3342–52, doi:10.1021/ja01335a050. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1934), "The Tautomerism of the Aminonaphthoquinones", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 56 (7): 1565–78, doi:10.1021/ja01322a034. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1935), "The Reduction Potentials of Various Naphthoquinones", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 57 (3): 491–94, doi:10.1021/ja01306a031. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1935), "A New Diene Synthesis of Anthraquinones", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 57 (9): 1679–81, doi:10.1021/ja01312a054. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1939), "The Synthesis from β-Naphthohydroquinone of a Tautomer of 4-Benzyl-1,2-naphthoquinone", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 61 (3): 596–608, doi:10.1021/ja01872a017. Fieser, Louis F.; Bowen, Douglas M.; Campbell, William P.; Fieser, Mary; Fry, Edward M.; Jones, R. Norman; Riegel, Byron; Schweitzer, Carl E.; Smith, Perrin G. (1939), "Quinones having Vitamin K Activity", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 61 (7): 1925–26, doi:10.1021/ja01876a507. Fieser, Mary; Fieser, Louis F. (1941), "Anthocyanidin-Like Pigments from α-Naphthohydroquinones", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 63 (6): 1572–76, doi:10.1021/ja01851a022.
  5. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary; Chakravarti, Ram Narayan (1949), ""α"-Spinasterol", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 71 (6): 2226–30, doi:10.1021/ja01174a085. Fieser, Mary; Rosen, William E.; Fieser, Louis F. (1952), "An i-Steroid Hydrocarbon from Ergosterol", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 74 (21): 5397–5403, doi:10.1021/ja01141a052. Fieser, Mary; Quilico, Adolfo; Nickon, Alex; Rosen, William E.; Tarlton, E. James; Fieser, Louis F. (1953), "Permanganate Oxidation of Ergosterol", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 75 (16): 4066–71, doi:10.1021/ja01112a057. Tarlton, E. James; Fieser, Mary; Fieser, Louis F. (1953), "Chromic Acid Oxidation of Epicholesteryl Acetate", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 75 (18): 4423–24, doi:10.1021/ja01114a007. Fieser, Mary; Romero, Miguel A.; Fieser, Louis F. (1955), "Bromination of 5α,6β-Dibromocholestane-3-one", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 77 (12): 3305–7, doi:10.1021/ja01617a045. Yamasaki, Kazumi; Rosnati, Vittorio; Fieser, Mary; Fieser, Louis F. (1955), "Δ3-Cholenic Acid", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 77 (12): 3308–9, doi:10.1021/ja01617a046. Klass, Donald L.; Fieser, Mary; Fieser, Louis F. (1955), "Digitogenin", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 77 (14): 3829–33, doi:10.1021/ja01619a045. Issidorides, Costas H.; Fieser, Mary; Fieser, Louis F. (1960), "Selenium Dioxide Oxidation of Methyl Δ3-Cholenate", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 82 (8): 2002–5, doi:10.1021/ja01493a038.
  6. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1948), "Naphthoquinone Antimalarials. XII. The Hooker Oxidation Reaction", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 70 (10): 3215–22, doi:10.1021/ja01190a005, PMID 18891824.
  7. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1944), Organic Chemistry, Boston, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1091 pp.
  8. Bergman, Werner (1944), "New Books", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 66 (10): 1802, doi:10.1021/ja01238a056. (book review)
  9. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary, Reagents for Organic Synthesis, Wiley: Volume 1 (1967) 1,475 pp. ISBN 0-471-25875-X; Volume 2 (1969) 538 pp. ISBN 0-471-25876-8; Volume 3 (1972) 401 pp. ISBN 0-471-25879-2; Volume 4 (1974) 660 pp. ISBN 0-471-25881-4; Volume 5 (1975) 864 pp. ISBN 0-471-25882-2; Volume 6 (1977) 765 pp. ISBN 0-471-25873-3.
  10. Volume 7 (1979) 487 pp. ISBN 0-471-02918-1; Volume 8 (1980) 602 pp. ISBN 0-471-04834-8; Volume 9 (1981) 596 pp. ISBN 0-471-05631-6; Volume 10 (1982) 528 pp. ISBN 0-471-86636-9; Volume 11 (1984) 669 pp. ISBN 0-471-88628-9; Volume 12 (1986) 643 pp. ISBN 0-471-83469-6; Volume 13 (1988) 472 pp. ISBN 0-471-63007-1; Volume 14 (1989) 386 pp. ISBN 0-471-50400-9; Volume 15 (1990) 432 pp. ISBN 0-471-52113-2; Volume 16 (1992) 435 pp. ISBN 0-471-52721-1; Volume 17 (1994) 464 pp. ISBN 0-471-00074-4.
  11. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1960), Style Guide for Chemists, New York: Reinhold.
  12. Fieser, Louis F.; Fieser, Mary (1959), Steroids, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, ISBN 0-278-91709-7, 964 pp.
  13. Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal, Recipients, American Chemical Society
  14. "Mary Fieser, Researcher, Writer in Organic Chemistry, Dies at Age 87", Harvard University Gazette, March 27, 1997
  15. "Chemistry Department creates Fieser Fellowship". Harvard Gazette. 2008-02-07. Retrieved 2018-06-02.

Further reading
Library resources about
Mary Peters Fieser
By Mary Peters Fieser
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