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Early Life
Early Life
Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch was born October 6, 1907 in Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland) to her parents Nadia and Ilya Gluecksohn. Salome grew up in Konigsberg East Prussia. Throughout Salome's early life, she was subject to persistent anti-Semitism as Jews made up a very small percentage of the population in Konigsberg, and she was often subject to antisemitic taunts from her peers (Gilbert 2009).
Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch was born into a Jewish family, where her father (Ilya) worked as a grain merchant. In 1918, Salome would lose her father to the influenza pandemic when she was 11 years old, and her family experienced the loss of their wealth due to the inflation that followed World War 1 (Papaioannou 2019).
Education
Education
Salome's educational journey began in Konigsberg at the University of Berlin, where she initially took courses in classics, however eventually switched and studied zoology and chemistry for two years as an undergraduate student (Silver 2008). In 1928, Salome became interested in the work being conducted by embryologist Hans Spemann at the University of Freiburg, where she ultimately decided to pursue her academics. Spemann agreed to take Salome on as a graduate student where she then received her PhD in 1932 (Papaioannou 2019).
Salome's time spent as a graduate student of Hans Spemann was complicated. Upon joining Spemann's laboratory, Salome was tasked with describing the processes of limb development in two different species of newts, which she described as boring and dull (Papaioannou 2019). Meanwhile, a fellow male student in Spemann's laboratory was tasked with manipulating new embryos to understand the process of limb development. Salome believed that her assigned project was designed simply to provide background information for the more important work being done by her male counterpart (Papaioannou 2019). Salome had always felt that Spemann had strong prejudice not only against women, but also Jews, which therefore contributed to their non-harmonious relationship (Solter 2008). During Salome's time as a graduate student, her professor, Hans Spemann, was also very adamant about how genetics played no role in the process of embryonic development, however, Salome began to think otherwise. Despite this, Salome knew it would be unwise to argue with her professor, and instead waited until she was working in her own laboratory to pursue this concept (Silver 2008).
Her Professional Pathway
Her Professional Pathway
After Salome received her doctorate in 1932, she began her professional career as a research assistant at the University of Berlin, where she worked for just under a year until she fled to New York City as a result of Adolf Hitler ordering the firing of all Jewish faculty members across Germany (Silver 2008). Salome spent the next three years mostly unemployed, up until she met L.C Dunn who was studying mouse genetics at the University of Columbia. At this time, Dunn was looking for an associate who had a background in embryology, and resultantly he took on Salome as a research associate (Solter 2008). With Dunn, Salome was given the opportunity to pursue her own scientific interests using mice as her primary model system. Ultimately, Salome's scientific career would excel at the University of Columbia as she was able to describe the role of the T-locus product as an inducer of mesoderm/axial development in mice (Silver 2008). Despite her great achievements at the University of Columbia, she still remained a research associate and the University made it clear that they had no intentions to hire women as members of their science faculty (Solter 2008).
In 1955, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine reached out to Salome and offered her a faculty position in the Department of Genetics, which she graciously accepted (Silver 2008). Salome would remain at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for the remainder of her career and was given the title of "Departmental Chair of Genetics" between 1963 and 1976 (Papaioannou 2019). Salome was honoured and recognized for her scientific achievements/contributions very late in her career, and died November 7, 2007, in New York at the age of 100 in her home in Manhattan (Solter 2008).
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