Dick, Gladys Rowena (1881-1963)

US microbiologist and doctor. She made major contributions to the prevention and treatment of scarlet fever. She was active in child welfare and founded the Cradle Society in Evanston, Illinois to supervise adoptions of children.

Born in Pawnee City, Nebraska, she attended the University of Nebraska and Johns Hopkins Medical School before turning to biomedical research, specifically into blood chemistry. She went to the University of Chicago where she met her future husband, who was working on the etiology of scarlet fever. The couple joined Chicago's John R McCormick Memorial Institute for Infectious Diseases where their work on scarlet fever led to the identification of the streptococcus bacterium as the cause and to the development of the ‘Dick test’ for susceptibility. There followed a long series of lawsuits over their attempts to secure patents for their methods of producing toxins and antitoxins, which some believe cost them a Nobel Prize.