Charlotte Fitch Roberts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charlotte Fitch Roberts | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 13, 1859 |
| Died | December 5, 1917 (aged 58) |
| Education | Yale |
| Occupation | Professor of chemistry |
Charlotte Fitch Roberts (February 13, 1859 – December 5, 1917) was an American chemist best known for her work on stereochemistry.[2]
Roberts was born on February 13, 1859, in New York City to Horace Roberts and Mary Roberts (née Hart).[3] She was raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts.[4] During a time when few women pursued higher education, Roberts demonstrated an early interest in science, which would later lead her to study chemistry and contribute to the field of stereochemistry.[5]
Education and career
Roberts attended Wellesley College in 1880. During her time at Wellesley College, she was a graduate assistant (1881), an instructor (1882), and eventually an associate professor (1886). In 1885 she spent a year at Cambridge University working with Sir James Dewar,[6] a chemist and physicist. Roberts also obtained a PhD fromYale in 1894 and a post at the University of Berlin from 1899 to 1900. In 1896 she published The Development and Present Aspects of Stereochemistry.[7] Her Yale professor claimed that The Development and Present Aspects of Stereochemistry was "the clearest exposition of which we have knowledge of the principles and conditions of stereochemistry."[6] Roberts' PhD, in the field of chemistry, is historically notable for being the first in that particular field awarded to a female Yale student.[8] She was made a professor and the head of the chemistry department from 1896 to 1917 at Wellesley College.
