Mary Van Rensselaer Buell

Mary Van Rensselaer Buell (June 14, 1893 – February 18, 1969) was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin. She carried on extensive research in nutrition and physiological chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University, and the University of Chicago.

Mary Van Rensselaer Buell was born in Madison, Wisconsin on June 14, 1893, daughter of Martha (Merry) and Charles Edwin Buell. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother was a prominent clubwoman and Cornell University alumna. Mary was one of four sisters; her sister Martha married geophysicist Louis B. Slichter. At the University of Wisconsin she earned a B. A., Scholar in Chemistry in 1914; an M. A. in Agricultural Chemistry in 1915; and a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1919. She was a Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

Mary Van Rensselaer Buell was a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists and carried out extensive research on nutrition and physiological chemistry at University of Iowa, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University, and the University of Chicago. "She worked on the chemistry of nucleic acids and nucleotides, the relation of hormones to the metabolism of carbohydrates, and the development of ultramicroscopic procedures for the analysis of enzyme activity."

Buell was an assistant in general chemistry at the University of Illinois (1915-1916) and an instructor at the University of Wisconsin (1917-1919). She was an instructor in physical chemistry, 1919-1920; and served as an assistant professor of Home Economics at the University of Iowa in 1920-1921.

She was listed among the staff at the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, MD, as an assistant professor (1921-1922), and then as an associate professor in the Department of Physiological Chemistry of the School of Medicine (1922-1930). She worked with the Department of Medicine from 1930 to 1946.

In 1948, Buell began the first of two appointments at the University of Wisconsin Enzyme Institute, where she was a research associate from 1948 to 1950. She went from there to the school of medicine at Washington University, St. Louis (1950-1954), and then to the University of Chicago school of medicine (1954-1957), where she became a professor of biochemistry (1957-1960). Upon her "retirement" in 1960, she returned to work at the University of Wisconsin's Enzyme Institute.