[1] Sarah Elizabeth Stewart was born on August 16, 1905, in Tecalitlán, Jalisco, Mexico, to a Native Mexican mother and an American mining engineer father.

[1][2] Due to the Mexican Revolution, she and her family were asked to leave the country in 1911, forcing them to migrate to the United States.

[3][4] Stewart joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a bacteriologist from 1935 to 1944 while completing her PhD at the University of Chicago.

[3] She later left her position in the NIH in order to pursue her goals in the research field as a commissioned officer of the United States Public Health Service at the National Cancer Institute in 1951.

[6] After completing her medical degree, Stewart wrote a protocol for work on cancer-causing viruses and sent it to the director of the National Cancer Institute.

This led to the common belief that virologists were not qualified to take part in cancer research, whereas microbiologists were thought to be overqualified.

[2] Despite these obstacles, Stewart continued to pursue her passion for cancer research and viruses, ultimately earning numerous achievements in her field.

[4] In 1956, Stewart approached Bernice Eddy for assistance growing the agent causing parotid tumors in mice.

Eddy readily agreed and the two women rapidly worked out the characteristics of the agent that was not referred to as a virus in their publications until 1959.

[11] Although it has been demonstrated that SE polyoma virus produces tumors in rodents under laboratory conditions, it is known that the parotid gland tumors and others of the spectrum produced in mice rarely are found under natural conditions, even though it has been found that many mouse colonies have the virus as a latent infection.

[13] The results of their collaboration earned them recognition by Time magazine in 1959, featuring a cover story on newly discovered viral agents that cause cancer.

[7] Instead, Gross invited Stewart to his lab in New York in early 1953 to learn more about his research and pick up the mice she previously requested for.

The rivalry came to a peak in 1958, when Jacob Furth attributed the discovery of the parotid tumor virus to both Stewart and Gross.

[7] Most organizations and researchers credited Stewart and Eddy for the finding, though Gross did not let his frustrations go unheard, leading him to write a number of letter to publishers.

[2] The Daughters of Penelope Salute Award is to honor women who promote Hellenism, education, philanthropy, civic responsibility and family and individual excellence, which Stewart did with her research.

[24] Today, the Sarah Stewart Scholarship at the Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUSOM) honors Dr. Sarah Stewart's pioneering achievements and research accomplishment by selecting incoming GUSOM students who demonstrate great potential for academic and research contributions, as well as the dedication to the ongoing study of the humane practice of medicine.