Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Helen Tracy Parsons (1886–1977), Ph.D.

Photo: http://www.sohe.wisc.edu/depts/history/bios/parsons.htm

Helen Parsons was a biochemist and nutritional chemist. She received her Ph.D. at Yale in 1928, studying with Yale faculty member Lafayette B. Mendel. Her research focused on the effect of nephrectomy on the rat’s kidney during reproduction and lactation when fed high protein diets. At University of Wisconsin, she was in charge of its Purnell Research Laboratory in Nutrition where she studied the effects of vitamins. In 1938, she became a full professor there.