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Gertrud Zerner (verh. Maengwyn-Davies)

Born: 12-28-1910
Faculty: Philosophical School
Category: Expelled student

Mag. pharm. Gertrud Diane ZERNER (married MAENGWYN-DAVIES, re-married SCHULZ), born on December 28th, 1910 in Paris/France (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of a.o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ernst Zerner (1884-1966, chemist) and Irene Anna Zerner, née Porges (1885-1948), lived in Vienna's 8th district, Neudeggergasse 1. She enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1928/29 after passing her school-leaving examination (Matura), but interrupted her studies to study languages in London and Paris for two years. She then studied chemistry and pharmacy in Vienna from the fall term of 1932/33 to the spring term of 1936 at the Philosophical School for four years, then spent two terms in the examination phase and received her "Absolutorium" on June 19th, 1937 and was awarded the academic degree of "Mag. pharm." in July 1937. She then continued her studies to become "Dr. phil." in chemistry and pharmacology from the spring term of 1937 and was finally enrolled in the 5th year at the Philosophical School in the fall term of 1937/38 and took courses in Psychology, Chemistry and Pharmaceutics/Pharmacognosy.

Although she had left the Jewish Community of Vienna on January 13th, 1925 and stated "non-denominational" when asked about her religion in the enrollment form, she was persecuted as a Jew under National Socialism after the Anschluss and forced to abandon her studies and leave the University of Vienna for racist reasons (as was her father, the chemist a.o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ernst Zerner).

After graduating as a pharmacist in 1937-1938, she worked both at the Wiesinger pharmacy and as a university assistant at the Institute of Pharmacognosy at the University of Vienna, where she also worked on her dissertation, but was no more able to finish it.

She had to flee Vienna and although her passport was revoked after the Anschluss due to anti-Nazi activities, she managed to emigrate to Great Britain in the spring of 1938 thanks to a job offer and visa. However, she then worked in England in various non-specialist areas such as selling pictures for art galleries, as a secretary to a ceramics expert and as a member of staff in the economics department of University College London in Aberystwyth. She lived in London and shortly after arriving in England had married David Evan Maengwyn Davies (1902-1968) from London in Marylebone, Greater London, England, on August 10th, 1938, and became a British citizen (marriage annulled in 1946).

At the end of 1940, she emigrated alone from Liverpool, England, to the USA, where she arrived on the SS Nova Scotia in Boston, MA, on December 5th, 1940 (her first port of call was a friend, Dr. H. Sobotka at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York). She initially worked in the USA as a translator and secretary, and from 1942 as a chemist in the research laboratory of the Warwick Chemical Co. (SUN Chemical Corp.), Long Island City, NY. 1943-44 she was head of the Analytical and Organic Chemistry Department of the Overly Biochemical Research Foundation, Inc., New York. 1944-45 she was a research assistant and student at New York University, where she was able to continue her studies, which she had been forced to abandon in Vienna.

On February 25th, 1946, she was granted US citizenship in New York, which she had applied for in 1941, had her first marriage annulled and married John Hanus Ignacius Schulz (1909-1986), a widowed business consultant born in Romania and living in Chicago, IL, in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana/USA on August 21st, 1946.

She joined the Quaker Oats Co. food company in Chicago as a research assistant in 1946, the Markle Foundation in 1948 and became a fellow in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore. From 1948 to 1952 she studied at the Departments of Medicine, Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and received several grants and fellowships during these years. In 1952 she was able to complete her studies and received her doctorate (Ph.D.).

From 1952 to 1955 she worked at the Medical Faculty of Johns Hopkins University (1952-53 instructor, 1953-55 assistant professor), was a visiting scientist at the Carlsberg Laboratories in Copenhagen/Denmark in 1953 and in 1955-56 associated research professor of pharmaceutics at the Medical Faculty of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. From 1956 she worked at the Medical Faculty of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (1956 associate professor, 1963 professor of pharmaceutics, 1975 professor of physiology and biophysics). In 1976 she retired as professor emeritus of pharmaceutics, physiology and biophysics in Washington. In between there were numerous visiting professorships and visiting research stays in England and the USA (including 1959 Royal Free Hospital Medical School, London; 1962 School of Pharmacy, University of London; 1962 department of pharmacy, Oxford University; 1962 department of pharmacy, Royal College of Surgeons, London; 1969 department of pharmacy, Cambridge University; ...) and numerous consulting activities. and participation in several editorial boards of scientific journals, e.g. 1965-69 New Drugs (A.M.A, Chicago), 1968 Unlisted Drugs (Pharmaco-Med. Documentation, Chatham, N.J.), 1970-74 Neurosciences Research (New York), 1974-76 Fed. of Am. Socs. for Exp. Biol.

She was a member of numerous international scientific associations (including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Chemical Society (London), Washington Academy of Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Association for Women in Science, British Pharmacological Society, ...), published 95 articles in scientific journals, often together with co-authors, and was awarded the Silver Spring Medal in 1981.

She last lived in Silver Spring, MD/USA.

Prof. Mag.pharm. Gertrud Diane Maengwyn-Davies, PhD, married Schulz, née Zerner, died on January 30th, 1985 in the USA.


Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1932–1938, M35.5. graduation registry ("Sponsionsprotokoll") PHARM III (1933–1993), No. 175; The Evening Star July 6th 1967, December 31st, 1970 and November 3rd, 1971; National Enquirer March 5th, 1972; RÖDER 1983, 762; Peter KROENER, ed., Vor fuenfzig Jahren. Die Emigration deutschsprachiger Wissenschaftler 1933–1939 (Katalog anlaesslich des 21. Symposions der Gesellschaft fuer Wissenschaftsgeschichte vom 12.–14. Mai 1983 in der Herzog-August-Bibliothek Wolfenbuettel), Munster 1983; Edith PROST, Vertriebene Frauen, in: Friedrich Stadler, ed., Vertriebene Vernunft II. Emigration und Exil österreichischer Wissenschaft 1930–1940, Vienna 1988 [²2004], 1079–1080, 1079; BRANDSTETTER 2007, 140; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 503, 433; Ilse KOROTIN u. Nastasja STUPNICKI, ed., Biografien bedeutender oesterreichischer Wissenschafterinnen, Vienna, Cologne & Weimar 2018, 518 (s. Biografia).


Herbert Posch


Gertrude D. Maengwyn-Davies, née Zerner, 1940, © National Library of Medicine in Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD/USA (nlmuid 101422669)

enrollment form ("Nationale") of Gertrud Zerner (Maengwyn-Davies), fall term 1937/38 (front), photo: Herbert Posch, © Archive of the University of Vienna

enrollment form ("Nationale") of Gertrud Zerner (Maengwyn-Davies), fall term 1937/38 (back), photo: Herbert Posch, © Archive of the University of Vienna
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