Mary Lura Sherrill

Mary Lura Sherrill (July 14, 1888 – October 27, 1968) was recognized for her achievements in chemical research, particularly the synthesis of antimalarial compounds, and for her teaching at Mount Holyoke College. In 1947, she received the Garvan Medal, an award for women in chemistry.

Early life and education Sherrill was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on July 14, 1888, the daughter of Miles Osborne Sherrill and Sarah (Bost) Sherrill. Two of her brothers were Clarence O. Sherrill, a military officer and aide to three U.S. presidents, and Joseph G. Sherrill, who helped found the American College of Surgeons. She was educated at public schools in North Carolina, before attending Randolph-Macon Women's College, where she received a B.A. in chemistry in 1909. Her interest in chemistry was stimulated by one of her freshmen year teachers, Fernando Wood Martin. The Mount Holyoke group investigated the ultraviolet spectroscopy of organic molecules. Mary Sherrill's contribution to the group was the synthesis and purification of organic compounds, in preparation for spectroscopic examination. This was essential work if the results of the analysis were to be meaningful.

In 1928–1929, Sherrill was awarded a fellowship to study new purification techniques being used overseas. She visited Jacques Errera in Brussels and Johannes Diderik van der Waals in Amsterdam. With Errera, she also studied the relationship between dipole moments and molecular structure. Mary Sherrill also visited in Europe in 1936, studying in Brussels, in Oxford, and at the University of Vienna. Sherrill and others including Emma Perry Carr, Mary Mercury Roth, Eleanor Anderson and Jean Crawford worked on the synthesis of antimalarial drugs for the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).

Mary Sherrill published on a variety of topics including preparation and identification of chemical derivatives, isomerism, ring compounds, dipole moments and molecular constitution, pentenes, heptenes, methylbutene and quinazoline derivatives. Her contributions were noted in the Annual Survey of American Chemistry (1930): "The preparation and purification of chlorides, bromides and iodides of normal heptane and the corresponding hydroxy-derivatives and the determinations of their dipole moments constitute valuable contributions". The Vassar Chronicle (1948) reported "A constant and active researcher, Professor Sherrill has contributed to the knowledge of the relation between physical properties and molecular structure, and has developed the application of physical methods to the study of organic compounds." She is one of three women from her research group at Mount Holyoke College who have independently won the prestigious award, the others being Emma Perry Carr (1937) and Lucy W. Pickett (1957).

She retired from teaching at Mount Holyoke in 1954.

Mary Lura Sherrill died on October 27, 1968, in High Point, North Carolina.