Marian Irwin Osterhout

Her mother was a Japanese noblewoman, daughter of a samurai; her father was an American diplomat, the son of William W. Irwin and a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin.

"[3] After graduate school, Marian Irwin attended the National Conference for the Limitation of Armaments in 1921, as assistant to professor Hideko Inouye, President of the Woman's Peace Organization of Japan.

[1][5][6] Marian Irwin Osterhout was a paid researcher at the Rockefeller Institute from 1925 to 1933 (and unpaid after that for many years, because she was married to another scientist there), specializing in cell permeability, especially the penetration and accumulation of dyes.

[7][8] She was a member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and wrote about fifty scientific papers for publication before she married.

[2][9] Marian Irwin married fellow plant scientist Winthrop John Van Leuven Osterhout (1871-1964), in 1933.