The Saint Louis Science Center envisions an equitable and inclusive society where people are passionate about science and use it to improve lives, transform communities and empower future generations. Through exposure to STEM concepts and recognition of contributions made by members of various communities, we aim to inspire and empower individuals from all backgrounds to pursue and thrive in STEM fields.
This March, as we celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re recognizing a few STEM-sational individuals who’ve inspired us all to make an impact.
Dr. Virginia Holsinger – Researched dairy products to improve nutrition and digestion (1937 – 2009)
Dr. Virginia Holsinger was a food scientist who researched the nutritional composition of dairy. Her research introduced several products that improved digestion and the dietary value of dairy and dairy substitutes. Discovering that adding the enzyme lactase to dairy could help break down the sugars into simpler forms, she helped introduce Lactaid® for lactose intolerant individuals and a dehydrated milk product that was shelf stable. Her research also developed reduced-fat cheese and the digestive aid Beano that reduced intestinal gas.
Born in Washington D.C., Dr. Holsinger focused on the chemistry of dairy in her education. Following graduation from Washington-Lee High School in Virginia, she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the College of William & Mary. She then joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to begin her research and was ultimately promoted to the head of the dairy products research unit. In 1980, she received a doctorate in food science and nutrition from the Ohio State University.
With the USDA, her team was focused on making dairy more digestible for individuals who were lactose intolerant or in areas where fresh milk was not readily available. She studied dairy enzymes and discovered that if they were treated with lactase, they could produce more digestible sugar forms (glucose and galactose, instead of lactose) with little impact upon the taste. These findings were scientifically published in 1974, and the resulting product would later be developed as Lactaid® to benefit lactose-intolerant individuals. The team also focused on developing a reduced-fat mozzarella cheese. Their product mimicked the texture, taste and melting results of true mozzarella, and this was then introduced in the USDA’s National School Lunch Program. They also conducted research on ways that sugar is more easily digested, and this became the basis for the product Beano that reduces human intestinal gases. A final project introduced a powdered milk replacement product that enjoyed a stable shelf-life and had reduced lactose, and this was distributed around the globe to help the U.S. Army and for organizations assisting in emergency relief instances.
Dr. Holsinger worked for USDA until her retirement in 1999 and received several awards for her efforts. She was given the Women in Science and Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, was inducted into the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service’s Hall of Fame in 2000 and inducted posthumously into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2025. She died from breast cancer in 2009.
For more information:
Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff – Demonstrated how bacteria could produce human insulin (1947-Present)
Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff is a molecular and cellular biologist who discovered that bacteria cells could be used to generate human insulin – revolutionizing the way that diabetes could be treated. She became the third Mexican-American woman to earn a doctorate in sciences and used her post-doctoral research to discover this successful treatment.
Dr. Villa-Komaroff grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a family that emphasized education and possibility. Her path to science was not without friction. As an undergraduate at the University of Washington in the mid-1960s, an advisor explicitly told her that women did not belong in chemistry, and she thus changed her major to biology. Moving to the East Coast, she transferred to Goucher College in Maryland to complete her undergraduate degree in biology after learning that Johns Hopkins University was not accepting women at the time. She then enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a graduate degree in biology and completed her PhD in cell and developmental biology from MIT in 1975, becoming only the third Mexican American woman to earn a doctorate in the sciences in the United States.
Following her doctorate, Villa-Komaroff joined the laboratory of Dr. Walter Gilbert at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher. In 1978, she was part of a research team that achieved something the scientific community had considered theoretically possible but had not yet proven in practice; they successfully inserted the gene for human insulin into bacterial cells and demonstrated that the bacteria could be used to produce functional insulin.
This finding was transformative. At the time, insulin for people with diabetes was derived from pigs and cows — a supply chain that was costly, limited, and not equally well-tolerated by all patients. Dr. Villa-Komaroff’s work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 1978, helped establish the scientific basis for producing human insulin through recombinant DNA technology. Within just a few years, Genentech and Eli Lilly developed the first recombinant human insulin, approved by the FDA in 1982 — the first genetically engineered product ever approved for human therapeutic use. Today, virtually all insulin used by people with diabetes worldwide is produced using a process rooted in that research.
Dr. Villa-Komaroff went on to a distinguished academic career, including faculty positions at Harvard Medical School and Northwestern University, where she studied the role of insulin and insulin-like growth factor in neuronal development. She later moved into research leadership, serving as Vice President for Research at Northwestern. She later served as Chief Operating Officer for the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston and as founding Chief Scientific Officer of Cytonome, a biotech company she helped establish, among other organizations.
Throughout her career, she has been a visible advocate for increasing representation of women and Latinos in STEM. She co-founded the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and has served in numerous advisory roles to advance equity in scientific institutions. She was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Hall of Fame, named a Fellow of the Association for Women in Science and participated in the White House Forum on Science in the National Interest.
For more information:
- Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Department of Biology
- Britannica
Dr. Ruth Benerito – Invented a method for making cotton fibers wrinkle-, stain-, and flame-resistant (1916 – 2013)
Credited with saving the cotton industry, Dr. Ruth Benerito invented a method for making cotton fibers wrinkle-, stain- and flame-resistant. This invention kept cotton relevant as a textile product and simplified the life of homemakers by speeding up laundry and eliminating the need for ironing. The process is considered one of the most significant technological advancements in the 20th century.
Born in New Orleans to parents who valued the importance of education and opportunities for women, Benerito graduated high school at age 14 and focused on chemistry in studies. At age 15, she entered Sophia Newcomb College (the women’s college at the time for Tulane University) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry by age 19. To pay for a master’s education, she taught math and science in high schools and college and earned the degree by completing night school classes — becoming one of only two women allowed to take physical chemistry classes at the time at Tulane. In 1948, she earned a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago.
At the conclusion of the war, she turned her research toward the cotton industry and earned 55 patents for various inventions and discoveries. She discovered a method for treating cotton fibers with mono-basic acid chlorides, which made them more durable and wrinkle-, stain- and flame-resistant. This kept cotton as a viable product for the textile industry, in competition with nylon, spandex and other “wash and wear” clothing fibers. The end-product also simplified life for homemakers, as it sped up laundry chores and eliminated the need to iron cotton products after washing. For making cotton more viable, she was given the nickname the “Queen of Cotton”.
She retired from USDA in 1986 but continued to teach classes at Tulane and the University of New Orleans until retirement in 1997. For her contributions, she was inducted into the USDA Agricultural Research Service Science Hall of Fame in 2004 and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2008. She was given the Federal Woman’s Award in 1968 and received the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 for her inventions.
For more information:
Subjects
