Rhoda Erdmann

Her work as a protozoologist earned her a graduate student lecturing position at Yale University, though her time in America was cut short by anti-German sentiment surrounding World War I.

After passing the required examination in 1892, she moved first to England and then later Romania to work as a teacher, ultimately ending with a position at a Volksschule in Hamburg in 1899.

She worked with living animal materials at the Naples Zoological Station, and passed the university qualifying examination in 1907 which she received from the Realgymnasium in Kassel (Hessen).

Working with August von Wassermann, Erdmann attempted to develop vaccines against Cyanophilia viruses (now recognized at H7 High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza [5]) in chickens.

[6] In 1913, she received a one-year fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct cytological research at the Osborn Zoological Laboratory at Yale University.

In addition, her work on the survival of Paramecium cultures led to important insights on cellular senescence and methods of genetic transmission.

In 1918 Erdmann was accused of poisoning the New Haven drinking water supply and introducing chicken cholera to the U.S.[9] She lost her job at Yale in February 1918, and was jailed from May until September, when she was bailed out by Harrison and a number of her female friends.

[10] Erdmann struggled to find work in Germany, and it was a full year before she got a position at the Institute for Cancer Research at the Charité Hospital of the Friedrich‐Wilhelms University of Berlin.

[2] When the Nazis came to power in 1933, she was banned from laboratory work after having been denounced by the eugenicist Henry Zeiss and the orthopedic surgeon Hermann Gocht, as being Jewish.

[2] Rhoda Erdmann is considered a role model and pioneer as she was a member of the first generation of women who were able to pursue a career in the academic field.

She was a contributor to a book called "Leading Women in Europe" where she spoke of her experiences and the difficulties faced when competing with male scientists.