Miriam Menkin
| Miriam Menkin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Miriam Friedman August 8, 1901 Riga, Latvia |
| Died | June 8, 1992 (aged 90) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Resting place | Beth El Cemetery in Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries, Boston, Massachusetts |
| Known for | In vitro fertilization research |
| Spouse(s) | Valy Menkin (m. 1924-1949) |
Miriam Friedman Menkin (8 August 1901 – June 8, 1992), née Miriam Friedman, was an American scientist who was most famous for her in vitro fertilization (IVF) research with John Rock. In February 1944, she became the first person to conceive human life outside of the body.
Menkin was born on August 8, 1901, in Riga, Latvia. She and her family moved to the United States two years after she was born. Her father worked as a doctor in New York City and was successful enough to let her family live comfortably. In 1922, Menkin graduated from Cornell University with an undergraduate degree in histology and comparative anatomy. She attended Columbia University for her graduate program and earned a master's degree in genetics only one year after graduating from Cornell. She taught biology and physiology for a short period while setting her sights on medical school. However, women were rarely admitted to medical school during this time period and Menkin was not accepted. Menkin married Valy Menkin, a Harvard medical student, in 1924. She still aimed to earn a Ph.D. in biology, but she needed to provide financial support while her husband finished medical school. Thus, Menkin obtained another undergraduate degree in secretarial studies from Simmons College. Menkin ended up finishing the Harvard Ph.D. requirements two separate times but did not receive a degree because she could not afford the course fees.
Menkin and Valy had two children: a son named Gabriel and a daughter named Lucy.
Following a few years of work as a secretary, Menkin served as a pathology research fellow at Harvard Medical School from 1930 to 1935. She was then offered a job as a laboratory technician for Gregory Pincus at Harvard. While working for Pincus, Menkin was tasked with preparing extracts designed to superovulate rabbits in Pincus' quest to create "fatherless" rabbits. Pincus lost his tenure at Harvard in 1937, which left her without a job. She worked in the state laboratories of Massachusetts for a year and then applied for a research position with John Rock, a fertility doctor, at the Free Hospital for Women (now part of Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston. Pincus' rabbit experiments had been a factor in Rock's decision to start IVF research, and Menkin's role in the experiments caught Rock's eye. Rock soon hired Menkin and they set out to determine the exact time at which ovulation would occur. Rock had come up with the idea but had not made any meaningful progress in laboratory research before hiring Menkin. He did not have an advanced understanding of the technical aspects of egg fertilization and hired Menkin to oversee all of the laboratory work.
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