Elizabeth Bugie

Elizabeth Bugie was born to Charles Bugie and Madeline Turbett. Bugie's father never studied beyond high school, and was committed to her education.^[1] He encouraged her to explore her curiosity, prompting her to be analytical and strong-willed.^[2]

Bugie studied microbiology at the New Jersey College for Women.^[1] She was a master's student at Rutgers University, working with Selman Waksman.^[1] Her master's thesis, Production of antibiotic substances by aspergillus flavus and chaetomium cochliodes, looked to optimise the production of flavicin and chaetomin.^[3]

Bugie worked on antimicrobials which could protect plants from Dutch elm disease.^[4] In 1944 Bugie, Waksman and Albert Schatz identified streptomycin in cultures of soil organisms, an antibiotic which was found to be active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.^[5][6] Bugie was told that it was not important for her name to be on the patent as she would "one day get married and have a family".^[1][7] Waksman went on to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952 and took all the credit for the discovery of streptomycin.^[1] Waksman claimed that Bugie was more involved in the discovery than Schatz.^[8] Waksman also wrote articles about his discovery, rarely mentioning help he had received.^[1][9] Bugie was eventually awarded 0.2% of the royalties for streptomycin.^[10] After the discovery of streptomycin, Bugie worked on micromonosporin, a pigmented glycoprotein which was active against gram-positive bacteria.^[11] Bugie worked for Merck & Co., evaluating pyrazinoic acid and penicillin as antibiotics against mycobacterium tuberculosis.^[12] Bugie developed several antimicrobial substances.^[13][14]

After graduating, Bugie married Francis Joseph Gregory, who also worked as a microbiologist in the Waksman lab.^[1] Bugie eventually returned to academia to get a degree in library science after raising her family.^[1] Bugie's daughter, Eileen Gregory, is a microbiologist at Rollins College.^[1] and has stated that her mother "did research not for notoriety but for love of science".^[2] Bugie died on April 10, 2001.^[15] She died still not being on the patent for Streptomycin.

In the discovery of Streptomycin three people played a large role, namely Waksman, Shatz, and Bugie, later known as Elizabeth Gregory. They worked closely together to ultimately, as a group, discover streptomycin. Waksman historically received the most recognition.

When looking at the contributions made to the study and discovery of streptomycin, Bugie contributed as much, if not more than Shatz.^[16] However there was an uneven distribution in compensation that each contributor received. Schatz sued Waksman in order to get royalties,^[1] but when each got their share, Waksman received 10%, Schatz 3%, and all of the other members of the lab shared the last 7%, in which Bugie received 0.2%.^[2] When the patent was created, neither Waksman nor Shatz included Bugie, claiming that it would not matter because someday she would be married and have kids.^[17] When the patent was originally signed, Bugie signed an affidavit.^[18] In this affidavit, Bugie stated that she was informed about streptomycin by Waksman and Shatz and had no part in the discovery of streptomycin.^[18] Bugie was, however, later quoted by her daughters as having said that if the women's liberation movement had been present, she would have received credit towards the patent on streptomycin.^[1] Shatz explained "the fact that Waksman asked her to do the work was a testimonial to her talents and competence,"^[2]showing how much of an impact she actually made, and how little she was compensated for it.