The Lady Professor

Book excerpt: A dying Emma Hanson asks her granddaughter to try to right a wrong that denied her a rightful place in history. Emma, a poor farm girl born in 1900, has exceptional scholastic ability and a deep fascination with the natural world. Despite fighting her way through poverty, her family's indifference, and prejudices against women attaining an education, she attends college. Under the tutorage of the college's only female professor, Emma conducts her first research with dung beetles and micro-organisms and knows she's found her calling. Emma manages to secure a faculty position at Harrington College and becomes a distinguished professor. In the lab, Emma and Joe Bellafiori, a young chemist, slowly unlock important secrets of genetic expression. The publication of their work is delayed by a prominent competing scientist who appears to take their work and publish it as his own. The Lady Professor is a novel about the human side of real science, historically and scientifically accurate, portraying a transitional time for women in science.