Elizabeth Lee Hazen

Inventor

Birthday August 24, 1885

Birth Sign Virgo

Birthplace Rich, MS

DEATH DATE Jun 24, 1975 (89)

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About

Co-inventor, by correspondence with Rachel Fuller Brown, of the antibiotic and antifungal Nystatin. She was inducted into he National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and her research has been used to save infected trees and restore paintings with mold damage.

Before Fame

A quick study from her earliest days, she graduated from the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College, and became one of the first female doctorate students Columbia University.

Trivia

She and Brown both agreed to donate the royalties from their invention, some $13 million, to the nonprofit Research Corporation for the advancement of academic scientific study.

Family Life

Born to William Edgar Hazen and Maggie Harper Hazen, she was raised by her uncle after both her parents died.

Associated With

She and Rachel Fuller Brown were both inspired by earlier scientific work with penicillin, and saw a need for a fungal fighter.