Marjorie J. Vold (October 25, 1913 – November 4, 1991) was an American chemist. Her research focused on

colloids A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others extend ...

, and was recognized with a Garvan-Olin Medal from the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

in 1967.

Early life and education

Marjorie Jean Young was born on October 25, 1913, in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, and moved to Mount Hamilton, California as a child, with her parents Reynold K. Young and Wilhelmine E. Aitken. Her grandfather

Robert Grant Aitken Robert Grant Aitken (December 31, 1864 – October 29, 1951) was an American astronomer. Early life and education Robert Grant Aitken was born in Jackson, California, to Scottish immigrant Robert Aitken and Wilhelmina Depinau. Aitken atten ...

cataloged

binary stars A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The observatory is managed by th ...

, and her father also worked an astronomer there. Young attended the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

for undergraduate and graduate work, earning her doctorate in 1936. She did postdoctoral work at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Career

Vold moved to southern California in 1941. She worked as a chemist for

Union Oil Company Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1947 she became a research associate at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, and from 1958 until 1974 she held adjunct professor status there. Her research continued to the end of her life, when she was working from a hospital bed on her final paper on premicelles. In 1964, Vold and her husband were authors of ''Colloidal Chemistry'', a widely used reference text. Marjorie Vold was awarded the Garvan Medal by the American Chemical Society for 1967, for her pioneering work in computer models of colloids. She was also named one of the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

"Women of the Year" for 1966. Vold received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

to teach in the Netherlands in 1953–54, the only woman chemist to earn that honor between 1940 and 1970. In 1957, Vold was the first woman to address the Indian Institute of Science in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, India.

Personal life

Marjorie Young married fellow chemist Robert D. Vold in 1936. They had three children, Mary, Robert and Wylda, all born during World War II. Marjorie Vold was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

in 1958, and used a wheelchair beginning in the early 1960s.Ursula Vils, "Marjorie Vold: Another Laurel on the Family Tree," ''Los Angeles Times'' (September 27, 1966): C1.
/ref> She died from complications of the disease in 1991, age 78.

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading