Education
Hobby graduated from Vassar College in 1931. She earned her master"s and Doctor of Philosophy in bacteriology from Columbia University.
Hobby graduated from Vassar College in 1931. She earned her master"s and Doctor of Philosophy in bacteriology from Columbia University.
Her work took penicillin from a laboratory experiment to a mass produced drug during World World War World War II Life and Hobby left Columbia University in 1944 to work for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in New York where she researched streptomycin and other antibiotics. In 1959, Hobby left Pfizer to specialized in chronic infectious diseases as chief of research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in East Orange, New Jersey. She also served as an assistant clinical research professor in public health at Cornell University Medical College.
In 1972 she founded the monthly publication, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, and continued to edit it for eight years.
She retired from her main career in 1977. In retirement Hobby wrote over 200 articles, working as a consultant and freelance science writer
She also published a book, Penicillin: Meeting the Challenge, in 1985. Hobby died of a heart attack in 1993.
Hobby is recognized for her work in creating a form of penicillin that was effective in humans.
Hobby, Meyer, and Dawson performed the first tests of penicillin on humans in 1940 and 1941, before presenting at the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Their findings received media coverage, which helped attract the interest of the pharmaceutical industry. During World World War II, the United States Government funded the mass production of pencillin, which was used to treat infections in soldiers during the war.
