How I Became the "Goddess of Vitamin E".

Abstract

My scientific journey is not traditional; it begins with the career opportunities available for and expectations of young women during the outset of the women's liberation era and how life changed along the way. I've started my story when I was a child in the 1950s, daughter of a milkman and an immigrant fleeing the communists in her home country. My story reaches an apex when I became an internationally recognized vitamin E expert. Overall, I made transformative contributions to our understanding of α-tocopherol function in humans, and, using model systems, I have reported how its absence has a major impact on cellular metabolism. This is the story of my transformation. I have had some excellent mentors. I have a passion about learning why the body needs α-tocopherol. Certainly, when I started out, I had no expectations that I would become a world-renowned scientist, a term I now use to describe myself.