Madeleine M. Joullié (born March 29, 1927) is a French-born American organic chemist. She was the first woman to join the
University of Pennsylvania chemistry faculty as well as the first female
organic chemist to be appointed to a
tenure track
Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...
position in a major American university. She was one of the first affirmative action officers at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a distinguished record as a teacher of both undergraduate and graduate-level organic chemistry, and as a mentor of students.
[
Joullié is also an active researcher in organic chemistry who has published three textbooks of organic chemistry, more than 18 review articles, and more than 300 scientific papers.][ Her work in synthesizing organic compounds such as ]tilorone
Tilorone (trade names Amixin, Lavomax and others) is the first recognized synthetic, small molecular weight compound that is an orally active interferon inducer. It is used as an antiviral drug in some countries which do not require double-blind p ...
, furanomycin, and numerous cyclopeptides has led to the development of antibiotic
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of ...
and antiviral drugs
Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used for treating viral infections. Most antivirals target specific viruses, while a broad-spectrum antiviral is effective against a wide range of viruses. Unlike most antibiotics, antiviral drugs do no ...
. Joullié has received numerous awards, including the 1978 Garvan Medal Garvan may refer to:
People
*Francis Patrick Garvan (1875–1937), American lawyer, president of the Chemical Foundation
*Genevieve Garvan Brady (1880–1938), American philanthropist and Papal duchess
* Garvan McCarthy (born 1981), retired Irish s ...
from the American Chemical Society, in recognition of her accomplishments in teaching and research.[
]
Early life
Madeleine Joullié was born in Paris, France.[ Her father, an international businessman, soon moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she attended the Lycée Français. The family also lived briefly in São Paulo. There she attended a private school, the .]
Joullié moved to the United States to study in 1946.[ She obtained a B.S. degree in chemistry from ]Simmons College
Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include:
* Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts
* Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky
* Har ...
, a women's college in Boston, in 1949.[ Then she moved to Philadelphia, where she was the only full-time female graduate student in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. There weren't even bathrooms for women in the chemistry building.] She earned an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1953.
She worked with Allan R. Day, who inspired Joullié as both a researcher and a teacher.
Also at the university, Joullié met Richard E. Prange (1932–2008), a condensed matter theorist in the physics department. They married in 1959.[
]
Career
In 1953, Madeleine Joullié joined the University of Pennsylvania chemistry faculty, the first woman to do so.[ Originally in a non-tenure-track position, Joullié taught undergraduate organic chemistry five days a week and ran the lab. In her first five years, none of the graduate students would work with her, so she carried out research in collaboration with undergraduates. As more women entered the department, first female and later male graduate students began to work with her.][
Joullié received a Fulbright scholarship to lecture at the University of Brazil (1965). While there, she wrote a textbook in Portuguese on heterocyclic chemistry.][ She has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University (1968), CRNS (Grenoble, France, 1987), the University of California at Santa Barbara (1989), and Cambridge, England (1997), but the majority of her career has been spent at the University of Pennsylvania.] Joullié became a full professor in 1974.[
]
Community involvement
Joullié was active in the safety committee at UPenn, helping to identify and enforce safe work guidelines for the chemistry department.
In 1970, Joullié and Mildred Cohn worked on the Committee on the Status of Women, which gathered data and documented the second-class status of women at Penn. The percentage of women holding faculty positions was far below the percentage of qualified women Ph.D.'s, and those women who had positions held lower rank, received lower salaries, and waited longer for promotion.[ The committee developed affirmative action guidelines, supporting the university's efforts to recruit more women and minority faculty.][
Later in the 1970s, dean ]Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian; fa, وارتان گرگوریان (April 8, 1934 – April 15, 2021) was an Armenian-American academic, educator, and historian. He served as president of the Carnegie Corporation from 1997 to 2021.
An Armenian born in Ira ...
appointed her as one of the first affirmative action officers at the University of Pennsylvania.[ Between 1976 and 1980, Joullié reviewed the hiring and promotions processes of the School of Arts and Science, comparing resumes of male and female candidates. On some occasions, when she felt that qualified women had been ignored in the hiring process, she flatly refused to sign off on new hires. Her effectiveness in the position led Provost Eliot Stellar to appoint her as the chair of the university's Council for Equal Opportunity, overseeing affirmative action in all departments.][ Of her affirmative action activities, Joullié says:
"I served in that role for seven years, without help, extra pay, or teaching relief... It was not a pleasant job, but it did produce results. The School of Arts and Sciences was so successful with their affirmative action program that I was then asked by the provost to chair the Council for Equal Opportunity to oversee the affirmative action programs of all the schools at Penn."][
Described by professor Helen Davies as "fearless and formidable",][ Joullié is credited as having played a key role in creating a culture of equality for women at the university.] Joullié also helped the American Chemical Society to develop professional guidelines for chemists.[
]
Scientific achievements
Early in her career, her Ph.D. advisor, Allan R. Day, interested her in heterocyclic compound
A heterocyclic compound or ring structure is a cyclic compound that has atoms of at least two different elements as members of its ring(s). Heterocyclic chemistry is the branch of organic chemistry dealing with the synthesis, properties, and ...
s, and she did early work with aromatic and heterocyclic scaffolds and fluorinated heterocycles. She also did significant research on heterocyclic ketones in the 1970s, collaborating with Peter Yates of the University of Toronto, and receiving the 1972 ACS Philadelphia Section Award.[ In the early 1970s, she successfully synthesized ]tilorone
Tilorone (trade names Amixin, Lavomax and others) is the first recognized synthetic, small molecular weight compound that is an orally active interferon inducer. It is used as an antiviral drug in some countries which do not require double-blind p ...
, an interferon inducer which helps to protect cells.[
Since then, much of Joullié's research has focused on the synthesis of natural products. In 1980, she reported the first asymmetric total synthesis of the antibiotic (+)-furanomycin, the first use of the Ugi 4CC in the synthesis of a non-proteinogenic amino acid. She helped to develop methodologies for aromatic substitution, and introduced the term "]chirality
Chirality is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object.
An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is distinguishable from ...
transfer". Her subsequent work has led to the total synthesis of several natural products, including muscarine, geiparvarin
Geiparvarin is a coumarin derivative found in the leaves of the Australian Willow (''Geijera parviflora''). It is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are a class of drugs that inhibit the activity of one or both ...
, ascofuranone
Ascofuranone is an antibiotic produced by various ascomycete fungi including ''Acremonium sclerotigenum'' that inhibits the ''Trypanosoma brucei'' alternative oxidase and is a lead compound in efforts to produce other drugs targeting this enzyme f ...
, furanomycin, and dihydromauritine A.[
Working with Judah Folkman at Harvard Medical School and Paul B. Weisz at the University of Pennsylvania, Joullié helped to synthesize beta-cyclodextrin sulfate, a ring-shaped sugar molecule that attaches to the walls of growing blood vessels. By capturing and delivering cortisone molecules, it decreases the growth of new capillaries. Chemotherapies can thus target aberrant ]angiogenesis
Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, formed in the earlier stage of vasculogenesis. Angiogenesis continues the growth of the vasculature by processes of sprouting and splitting ...
, the growth of new blood vessels, and restrict the growth of malignant tumours. Joullié's specialized compounds made Folkman's original treatments 100 to 1000 times more potent. Beta-cyclodextrin sulfate is also useful in limiting restenosis, growth of cells on artery walls that can lead to blockages at the site of surgical procedures.[
Another particularly interesting area of research has involved the ]Didemnin
Didemnins are cyclic depsipeptide compounds isolated from a tunicate (ascidian, or sea-squirt) of the genus '' Trididemnum'' (family of Didemnidæ) that were collected in the Caribbean Sea. They were first isolated in 1978 at the University of ...
class of macrocyclic depsipeptide. Derived from a marine tunicate of the family Didemnidae, didemnins exhibit antitumor, antiviral and immunosuppressive qualities. Joullié's asymmetric total synthesis of didemnin B in 1990 was a landmark event leading to fundamental contributions to both the chemistry and biology of this intriguing class of natural products. Didemnin B was the first marine natural product to be used in clinical trials against cancer. Joullié has produced several didemnin analogs. She has also developed probe molecules that can trace didemnins, allowing researchers to more effectively study their biological activities.[
Another area of research has been ]ninhydrin
Ninhydrin (2,2-dihydroxyindane-1,3-dione) is an organic compound with the formula C6H4(CO)2C(OH)2. It is used to detect ammonia and amines. Upon reaction with these amines, ninhydrin gets converted into deep blue or purple derivatives, which are ...
analogs. Joullié's lab has developed compounds with enhanced chromogenic and fluorogenic properties, useful in fingerprinting and forensic science.[ Joullié was asked by the United States Secret Service to help in developing fingerprint reagents. Fingerprint chemicals must be non-toxic and can't damage sensitive evidence, as well as meeting other criteria. Joullié, with students Olga Petrovskaia and Diane Hauze, developed and patented a class of compounds called indanediones.] Like ninhydrins, indanediones react with amino acids from the oil on people's fingertips.[ They have the advantages of being cheaper to produce, easier to use, and more sensitive, providing more clarity and sharper contrast.] Indanediones are standardly used in the first stage of forensic identification of latent fingerprints.
Awards
Madeleine M. Joullié has received a substantial number of awards, including the following:
* John Scott Medal (2015)
* Edward Leete Award (2009)
* Arthur C. Cope Senior Scholar Award (2002) from the American Chemical Society
* Distinguished Achievement Award University of Pennsylvania Graduate Student Associate and Phi Lambda Upsilon
Phi Lambda Upsilon National Honorary Chemical Society () was founded in 1899 at the Noyes Laboratory of the University of Illinois. Phi Lambda Upsilon was the first honor society dedicated to scholarship in a single discipline, chemistry.
Object ...
(1999)
* (1998)
* H. Martin Friedmann Lectureship, Rutgers University (1995)
* Henry Hill Award (1994)
* Philadelphia Organic Chemist's Club Award (1994)
* Second Annual Association of American Women in Science, Philadelphia Chapter Award (1991)
* Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (1991)
* American Institute of Chemists 34th Annual Scroll Award (1988)
* American Cyanamid Faculty Award (1984)
* Garvan Medal Garvan may refer to:
People
*Francis Patrick Garvan (1875–1937), American lawyer, president of the Chemical Foundation
*Genevieve Garvan Brady (1880–1938), American philanthropist and Papal duchess
* Garvan McCarthy (born 1981), retired Irish s ...
(1978)
References
Further reading
*
External links
Joullié Group, University of Pennsylvania
A Video interview of Professor Joullié
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joullie, Madeleine
1927 births
French women chemists
American women chemists
Organic chemists
21st-century American chemists
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Recipients of the Garvan–Olin Medal
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Scientists from Paris
French emigrants to the United States
Simmons University alumni
Living people
American women academics
21st-century American women scientists