Rosalyn Yalow never finished high school, but that didn't stop her from becoming the first female physics major at Hunter College in New York. Unfortunately, in the 1940s, gaining admission to a prestigious university as a Jewish woman wasn't easy.

"They told me that as a woman, I'd never get into graduate school in physics," Yalow recalled, "so they got me a job as a secretary at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and promised that, if I were a good girl, I would take courses there."

Yalow was more than a good girl - she was a great one. In the 1950s, her discovery of radioimmunoassay greatly advanced care options for diabetes, fertility, and thyroid function. It even made possible a test that could help infants with under-active thyroid glands from developing mental retardation. Oh, and it also made her the first American woman and the second woman in history to win the Nobel Prize in medicine.

"We must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us," she said to her fellow female scientists when accepting the award. "We must feel a personal responsibility to ease the path for those who come after us. The world cannot afford the loss of the talents of half its people if we are to solve the many problems that beset us."

Unfortunately, it is has now lost the talents of one its most intelligent, driven and passionate. Ms. Yalow passed away at the age of 89 on Monday, May 30.

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