Gerty Cori (MD, Nobel)

In 1947, Gerty Theresa Cori (MD) was the third woman to receive a Nobel Prize in science sharing the honor with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori, and is the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Cori was recognized for her discovery of the mechanism by which glycogen, a starch made from glucose, is broken down in muscle tissue, then into lactic acid and finally resynthesized in the body to be stored as energy now known as the Cori cycle. Despite co-authoring dozens of papers with her husband, her career was hindered for many years because of her gender. It was only after she was awarded the Nobel Prize that she was finally appointed as a full professor. She became a Catholic in 1920 prior to her marriage to Carl.