Ruth R. Benerito

Ruth Mary Rogan Benerito was born and raised in New Orleans in 1916.[1] Her father, John Edward Rogan, was a civil engineer and railroad official and was described by his daughter as a pioneer in women's liberation movement. Her mother, Bernadette Elizardi Rogan, was an artist and considered a "truly liberated woman" by her daughter.[2] Both parents were college graduates and imposed their values regarding a strong sense of education and women's rights onto Ruth.

The Great Depression era surrounded Ruth Benerito's early years and when she eventually received her B.S. in chemistry, one in five Americans was unemployed.[3] Benerito's original interest preceding chemistry was math; however, she did not want to foster a career as an actuary simply estimating probabilities for insurance companies, which led her to study chemistry.

Later in her life as she reflected on her many achievements, the true essence of her character was illustrated when she said, "I believe that whatever success that I have attained is the result of many efforts of many people. My very personal success was built from the help and sacrifices of members of my family, and professional accomplishments resulted from the efforts of early teachers and the cooperativeness of colleagues too many to enumerate."[3]

In an age when girls did not usually go on to higher education, her father made sure his daughters received the same education available to boys. Benerito completed high school at age 14 and entered Sophie Newcomb College, the women's college at Tulane University, at age 15 where she earned a degree in chemistry, as well as physics and math.[1] She graduated in 1935 and moved to Bryn Mawr College to complete one year of graduate studies.

She then moved to Newcomb, where she taught chemistry while researching advanced quantitative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics. While working as a teacher, Benerito took night classes to earn her master's degree from Tulane University. In 1948 she received her doctorate degree from the University of Chicago, where she conducted physical chemical research under the direction of Thomas F. Young. Her Ph.D dissertation was titled "Activity Coefficients of HCl in Ternary Aqueous Solutions". She left her job as an assistant professor in Newcomb College in 1953 to work at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture in New Orleans, where she spent most of her career.[4]

At the USDA she worked in the Intravenous Fat Program of the OilSeed Laboratory, and in 1955 she was promoted to project leader. In 1958 she was promoted to acting head of the Colloid Cotton Chemical Laboratory, and in 1959 she became the research leader of the Physical Chemistry Research Group of the Cotton Reaction Laboratory. Benerito completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 1972 in biophysics at Tulane University. Still at Tulane, she was an adjunct professor from 1960 to 1981. During that time, she also worked as a lecturer at the University of New Orleans.[4] In later years, while she was researching cotton fibers, Benerito taught classes part-time at Tulane University and at the University of New Orleans.

She retired from the USDA in 1986 but continued to teach part-time at Tulane and the University of New Orleans.[5][6]

• 1964 USDA Distinguished Service Award
• 1968 Federal Woman Award
• 1968 Southern Chemist Award
• 1970 Garvan Medal
• 1971 Southwest Regional Award of American Chemical Society
• 1981 Honorary degree, Tulane University
• 1984 Woman of Achievement at World's Fair
• 2002 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2008 National Inventors Hall of Fame induction[14]

• 2008 Chicago Tribune biography
• Patents by Inventor Ruth R. Benerito