Anna J. Harrison

Anna Jane Harrison (23 December 1912 to 8 August 1998) was an American organic chemist and a professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for nearly forty years. She was the first female president of the American Chemical Society and received twenty honorary degrees. She was born in Benton City, Missouri, to farming parents, and earned her B.A. degrees, M.A. and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1940, all at the University of Missouri. She taught chemistry at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College of Tulane University from 1940 to 1945, did wartime research on toxic smoke and field kits for the United States Army, and in 1945 joined the chemistry department at Mount Holyoke as an assistant professor. She became a full professor in 1950, chaired the department from 1960 to 1966 and retired in 1979, and she was nationally known for her teaching and for her support of women in science.