Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau

Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau (27 October 1910 – 12 January 2000) was an American chemical engineer who designed the first commercial penicillin production plant.[1][2] She was the first female member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.[3]

Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau

Life

Hutchinson was born in 1910 in Houston, Texas, the daughter of a clothing store owner. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Rice Institute in 1932 and her Doctor of Science degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1937, the first woman to earn a doctorate in the subject in the USA.[4] Her thesis topic was The effect of solute on the liquid film resistance in gas absorption.[2]

On 1 May 1939, she married William Caubu Rousseau, a co-worker at E.B. Badger & Sons, who was later a chemical engineering lecturer at MIT. They had one son, William.

She died 12 January 2000, aged 89, at her home in Weston, Massachusetts.[4]

Career

Hutchinson started her professional career with E. B. Badger in Boston. During the Second World War, she oversaw the design of production plants for the strategically important materials of penicillin and synthetic rubber.[5] Her development of deep-tank fermentation of penicillium mold enabled large-scale production of penicillin.[2][6] She worked on the development of high-octane gasoline for aviation fuel.[2] Her later work included improved distillation column design and plants for the production of ethylene glycol and glacial acetic acid.[5]

An ethylene glycol plant was recently in the process of construction deep in the heart of Texas, when an indignant workman watching a tall, blonde beauty boss the project, said to his foreman: "Who does that dame think she is, strutting around here?" "Oh, her!" the foreman shrugged with a grin, "Well, I'll tell you Buck, she's just the dame who designed this whole darn plant."[7]

Hutchinson retired in 1961, and later became an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.[8]

Honors

In 1945, Hutchinson became the first woman to be accepted as a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.[9][3] In 1955 she received the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers.[8][10] In 1983 she was the first female recipient of the prestigious Founders Award of the AIChE.[3]

References
  1. "Fifty Chemical Engineers of the "Foundation Age"" (PDF). CEP. American Institute of Chemical Engineers. September: 71. 2008.
  2. Madhavan, Guruprasad (20 August 2015). Think Like an Engineer. Oneworld Publications. pp. 83–85, 91–93. ISBN 9781780746371. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  3. AIChE Centennial Celebrations: "Milestones", aiche.org; accessed 2 November 2016.
  4. MIT Women's Association Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, mit-amita.org; accessed 2 November 2016.
  5. Hatch, Sybil E. (2006). Changing our world : true stories of women engineers (2nd ed.). Reston: ASCE Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780784408414. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  6. "Ten chemical engineers that shaped our world (Day 356)". 18 May 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  7. Anonymous (May 1952). "CLASS NOTES - 1937". MIT Technology Review. 54 (7): xxiii.
  8. In Memorium: "Margaret H. Rousseau '37, First Woman to Receive Doctorate From MIT ChemE", mit.edu; accessed 2 November 2016.
  9. Tietjen, Jill S. (2017). Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women's Scientific Achievements and Impacts. Springer. p. 17. ISBN 978-3-319-40800-2. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  10. Olsen, Kirstin (1994). Chronology of women's history (1st ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 283. ISBN 9780313288036. Retrieved 20 November 2016.

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