Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey
Personal Information
Born: 1914
Died: 2015
Country of Birth: Canada
Nationality: Canada; USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Victoria College (now University of Victoria) no degree; McGill University BS 1934, MS Pharmacology 1935; University of Chicago PhD Pharmacology 1938, MD 1950
Professional Life
Field of Study: Pharmacology
Institution/Corporation: FDA; University of Chicago; University of South Dakota
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: Vancouver Island University (2012)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1962, President s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service; 2010, Drug Safety Excellence Award FDA (later named Frances O. Kelsey Award); 2015, Order of Canada; 1963, Golden Key Award, University of Chicago Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association; 2000, National Women s Hall of Fame; 2001, named a virtual Mentor for the American Medical Association; 2006, Foremother Award, National Center for Health Research; Asteroid Kelsy named after her
Achievements: area of expertise was teratogens-drugs that cause birth defects; became responsible for directing surveillence of drug testing at FDA after thalidomide refusal & ensuing tighter FDA regulations
As a reviewer for the USFDA she refused to authorize thalidomide for market
Born on rural Cobb Island, British columbia
Learned to read by listening to her mother teach her brother
2nd female recipient of the President's Award For Distinguished Federal Civilian Service
Graduated high school at 15
Wrote to the department head of the new pharmacology department at the University of Chicago asking for a position doing graduate work; he thought she was a male & offered her a position; she began work there in 1936
1950s, became a dual citizen of Canada & the US
Retired from the FDA in 2005 at age 90 after 45 years of service
Died at age 101
Whiloe searching for a synthetic quinine to cure malaria, she learned some drugs could pass through the placental barrier
1937, discovered with E. M. K. Gerling that an isotope of antifreeze in Elixir Sulfamelamide was killing people; led to the 1938 Food, Drug, & Cosmetics Act