First Jewish Woman to Win a Nobel Prize

Gerty Cori's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded on December 10, 1947, also marked a significant milestone as she became the first Jewish woman to win a Nobel Prize in any category.

Born into a Jewish family in Prague, Gerty Radnitz had converted to Catholicism prior to her 1920 marriage to Carl Cori, a conversion common among assimilated Central European Jewish families of the era, partly in response to widespread antisemitism that limited social and professional opportunities. Nonetheless, her Jewish heritage remains an important part of her biographical and cultural legacy.

Her achievement came only a few years after the Holocaust had decimated Jewish communities across Europe, including Czechoslovakia, giving her Nobel win added historical resonance as a symbol of resilience and intellectual achievement following a period of catastrophic persecution. Her recognition as the first Jewish woman Nobel laureate has been highlighted by numerous Jewish cultural and historical organizations as an important marker in the broader history of Jewish contributions to science, alongside the barriers she overcame as both a woman and a person of Jewish descent in the scientific establishment of the early-to-mid twentieth century.