Edith Quimby

Born on 10 July 1891 in Rockford, Illinois, Edith Hinkley Quimby was an American medical researcher and pioneer in the field of radiation physics. Quimby earned her BS in physics and mathematics from Whitman College in Washington and her MA from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1919 she moved with her husband to New York, where she went to work in the radiation research program of Gioacchino Failla, chief physicist at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases. Her work focused on the medical effects of radiation and how to determine the precise dosage needed that would cause the fewest side effects. In 1943 she moved with Failla to the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, where they founded the Radiological Research Laboratory. At Columbia, Quimby gained full professorship and established several programs of study in radiological physics and biophysics. Besides authoring more than 70 scientific papers and several books, Quimby coauthored Physical Foundations of Radiology (1944), which became a classic in the field. With Failla, Quimby focused on the application of radioactive isotopes in the treatment of thyroid disease and the diagnosis of brain tumors, thus becoming a primary contributor to the development of nuclear medicine. Over her career, Quimby received numerous honors and awards, among them the 1940 Janeway Medal from the American Radium Society and honorary degrees from Whitman College and Rutgers University. She also served on the Atomic Energy Commission and was a founding member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Even after retiring from Columbia as an emeritus professor in 1960, she continued to work and lecture in the field for almost two decades. Quimby died in 1982 at age 91. (Photo credit: Center for the American History of Radiology, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

Date in History: 10 July 1891