Judith Graham Pool

Judith Ethel Graham Pool (June 1, 1919 — July 13, 1975) was an American scientist. She is best known for the discovery of cryoprecipitation, a process for creating concentrated blood clotting factors which significantly improved the quality of life for hemophiliacs around the world.

Background Judith Graham was born on June 1, 1919 in Queens, New York into a Jewish family. Her mother was a school teacher and her father was a stockbroker. She married Ithiel de Sola Pool, a political scientist, in her junior year. She left her graduate program when she gave birth to her two sons, Jonathan Robert and Jeremy David Pool, in the 1940s. The couple divorced in the 1950s. She moved to Oslo, Norway in 1958—1959. She had a daughter twenty years after the birth of her second son, and married Maurice Sokolow, professor of medicine and hematology. Their marriage ended after three years.

Judith Pool died at age 56, from a brain tumor. and was a member of the AWIS steering committee from 1972 to 1973. She received awards for this discovery. In addition to devising and introducing into clinical medicine a preparation containing the lacking protein in the hemophiliacs, which changed their treatment in a major way, she also made a number of contributions on the extraction, preservation, and survival of proteins. At the time of her death, she was widely respected in the field of hematology.

Selected work - Measurements of membrane potential in a single muscle fiber (with Dr. Ralph W. Gerard), 1942 - The Elizabeth Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 1973 - The Paul M. Aggeler Memorial Lectureship, 1974 - The Professional Achievement Award from University of Chicago, 1975 - The National Hemophilia Foundation renamed its Research Fellowship Awards the Judith Graham Pool Research Fellowships