Rachel Fuller Brown

Rachel Fuller Brown (1898 to 1980) was an American chemist best known for her long-distance collaboration with the microbiologist Elizabeth Lee Hazen in developing nystatin, the first useful antifungal antibiotic, while doing research for the Division of Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health. She received her BA from Mount Holyoke College and her PhD from the University of Chicago, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994. Nystatin is still produced today under various trade names; it cures a variety of potentially devastating fungal infections and has also been used to combat Dutch elm disease in trees and to restore artwork damaged by water and mold.