Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau (27 October 1910 – 12 January 2000) was an American chemical engineer who designed the first commercial penicillin production plant. She was the first female member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.AIChE Centennial Celebrations: "Milestones"
aiche.org; accessed 2 November 2016.

Life

Hutchinson was born in 1910 in Houston, Texas, the daughter of a clothing store owner. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from

Rice Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its work ...

in 1932 and her

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

degree in chemical engineering from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

in 1937, the first woman to earn a doctorate in the subject in the USA. Her thesis topic was ''The effect of solute on the liquid film resistance in gas absorption.'' On 1 May 1939, she married William Caubu Rousseau, a co-worker at E.B. Badger & Sons, who was later a chemical engineering lecturer at MIT. They had one son, William. She died 12 January 2000, aged 89, at her home in

Weston, Massachusetts Weston is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, about 15 miles west of Boston. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, the population of Weston was 11,851. Weston was incorporated in 1713, and protection of the town's historic resourc ...

.MIT Women's Association
, mit-amita.org; accessed 2 November 2016.

Career

Hutchinson started her professional career with E. B. Badger in Boston. During the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

, she oversaw the design of production plants for the strategically important materials of penicillin and synthetic rubber. Her development of deep-tank fermentation of penicillium mold enabled large-scale production of penicillin. She worked on the development of high-octane gasoline for aviation fuel. Her later work included improved

distillation column A fractionating column or fractional column is an essential item used in the distillation of liquid mixtures to separate the mixture into its component parts, or fractions, based on the differences in volatilities. Fractionating columns are used in ...

design and plants for the production of

ethylene glycol Ethylene glycol (IUPAC name: ethane-1,2-diol) is an organic compound (a vicinal diol) with the formula . It is mainly used for two purposes, as a raw material in the manufacture of polyester fibers and for antifreeze formulations. It is an odo ...

and

glacial acetic acid Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main component ...

An ethylene glycol plant was recently in the process of construction deep in the heart of Texas, when an indignant workman watching a tall, blonde beauty boss the project, said to his foreman: "Who does that dame think she is, strutting around here?” “Oh, her!” the foreman shrugged with a grin, “Well, I’ll tell you Buck, she’s just the dame who designed this whole darn plant.”

Hutchinson retired in 1961, and later became an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Honors

In 1945, Hutchinson became the first woman to be accepted as a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 1955 she received the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers.In Memorium: "Margaret H. Rousseau '37, First Woman to Receive Doctorate From MIT ChemE"
mit.edu; accessed 2 November 2016. In 1983 she was the first female recipient of the prestigious Founders Award of the

AIChE The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was actually established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as a profession independent of chemists and mechanical engineer ...

References

Images

Walter Reuther Library
Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau, Portrait (1955)
Walter Reuther Library
Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau, Portrait (1961) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rousseau, Margaret 1910 births 2000 deaths Rice University alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni Engineers from Houston American chemical engineers American women engineers Fellows of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 20th-century American engineers People from Weston, Massachusetts 20th-century American women scientists Women chemical engineers