Anna Goldfeder

Dr. Anna Goldfeder (1898 – February 15, 1993) was a pioneering researcher in the fields of radiology and cancer treatment. Born in 1898 in Józefów Poland, Goldfeder studied at the University of Prague and worked at the Masaryk University before earning her doctorate in natural sciences (D.Sc.) in 1922. She was invited to conduct research in the United States, and immigrated in 1931. During her 66-year career as a research scientist, she worked at the University of Vienna, Harvard University, Columbia University, Lenox Hill Hospital, the Rockefeller Institute, the New York City Hospitals Department and the Department of Biology at New York University Washington Square, where she was director of the Cancer and Radiobiology Research Laboratory.

Goldfeder is known both for her role as a pioneering woman in advanced scientific research and for her many accomplishments as a researcher. Autumn Stanley, member of the Institute for Historical Study (Berkeley), writes "The contributions of this distinguished Polish-born researcher to cancer therapy in general and to radiology in particular can scarcely be overestimated." Goldfeder created a strain of white lab mice, named X-GF (after her initials), that is resistant to both natural and lab-induced cancerous tumors and is widely used in experimentation. She discovered that radiation treatment could (in mice) completely destroy a malignant tumor without otherwise harming the subject; she also improved use of lead shielding, and discovered that the effects of radiation varied with the emission medium. She established, with a bequest, the Dr. Anna Goldfeder Scholarship award for Ph.D. students at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.