Gladys Anderson Emerson

Gladys L. A. Emerson
Gladys Emerson, early 1950s
Born	(1903-07-01)July 1, 1903 Caldwell, Kansas
Died	January 18, 1984(1984-01-18) (aged 80) Santa Monica, California
Fields	Biochemistry, nutrition
Alma mater	Oklahoma College for Women Stanford University University of California, Berkeley
Spouse	Oliver Emerson (m. 1932–40)

Gladys Ludwina Anderson Emerson (July 1, 1903 – January 18, 1984) was an American historian, biochemist and nutritionist who researched the impact of vitamins on the body. She was the first person to isolate Vitamin E in a pure form and won the Garvan–Olin Medal in 1952.

Gladys Anderson was born on July 1, 1903, in Caldwell, Kansas; she was the only child of Otis and Louise (Williams) Anderson. She attended grade school in Fort Worth, Texas and high school in El Reno, Oklahoma.

She received her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Chemistry and Physics and her Artium Baccalaureatus (A.B.) degree in English from the Oklahoma College for Women. In 1926, she earned her Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in history and economics from Stanford.

After being a department head at a junior high school, teaching geography and history, she accepted a fellowship in biochemistry and nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her Ph.D. in animal nutrition and biochemistry at Berkeley in 1932. In 1932, she married her colleague, Dr. Oliver Huddleston Emerson. Immediately following, they both were accepted as postdoctoral fellows at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where she worked with Nobel prize winners Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus and Adolf Butenandt.