Marie M. Daly PhD Memorial Celebration

The Marie M. Daly Memorial Celebration is sponsored by the Graduate Division of Biomedical Sciences and the Einstein Minority Scientist Association (EMSA)

Marie M. Daly was the first African-American woman in the United States to be awarded a Ph.D. in Chemistry. She received her degree from Columbia University and continued her groundbreaking research on health and the heart at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

As a teacher of Biochemistry at Einstein she was dedicated to increasing the number of minority students in medical schools and graduate science programs.

2022 Marie M. Daly Memorial Lecture

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021

12:00 noon
via Zoom

Guest Speaker:

W. Marcus Lambert, Ph.D.

Associate Vice President for Research Strategy and Operations
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Brooklyn, NY

“Promoting an Inclusive Scientific Workforce”



 

Full 2022 Event Details 

Dr. Daly Photo Gallery

From the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Archives. Photo by Ted Burrows, Photographer.

Memorial Lecture Flyers

About Dr. Marie M. Daly

Dr. Marie M. Daly was an outstanding member of the departments of biochemistry and medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1960 to 1986. Born in New York, Dr. Daly received her B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in chemistry in 1942 from Queens College. In 1943, she received her M.S. degree in chemistry from New York University, and in 1947, she received her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Columbia University. She was the first African-American woman in the United States to be awarded a Ph.D. degree in chemistry. 

Dr. Daly was on the research and teaching staffs of Queens College, Howard University, the Rockefeller Institute, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She collaborated with Dr. Quentin Deming at the Goldwater Memorial Hospital in New York, and she came to Einstein with Dr. Deming in 1958. Her research centered largely on four areas. At the Rockefeller Institute she collaborated with Drs. A.E. Mirsky and V.G. Allfrey on the chemistry of histones, work that was fundamental in the field. With those investigators she also did important work on protein synthesis. Then, at Goldwater, and in her early years at Einstein, she did significant work on the biochemistry of cholesterol and its relation to hypertension. 

In her last years at Einstein, she contributed significantly to the understanding of the uptake of creatine by muscle cells. (Creatine is an important compound in the bioenergetics of muscle.) Dr. Daly was engaged in teaching medical and graduate students at Einstein and was especially involved in recruitment and training of minority students. For many years she guided the careers of African-American students at Einstein. 

Dr. Daly retired in 1986. She is remembered as a wonderful and generous person with a winning smile and dignified bearing. She was highly cultured and especially devoted to playing the flute. In later years, when cancer interfered with her ability to play the flute, Dr. Daly learned to play the guitar. She also was an excellent gardener and was devoted to her dogs. Dr. Daly was married to Vincent Clark, who predeceased her. She is survived by members of the Daly and Clark families. Dr. Daly died in October, 2003.

(In memoriam remembrance excerpt provided by Dr. Sam Seifter, department of biochemistry, published in Einstein Magazine Winter 2005)

Past Annual Celebrations

7th Annual Memorial Lecture 

6th Annual Memorial Lecture 

5th Annual Memorial Lecture 

4th Annual Memorial Lecture 

3rd Annual Memorial Lecture 

2nd Annual Memorial Lecture