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At 6:30 am on October 17, 1988, Elion was
getting dressed when a reporter called to
congratulate her on winning the Nobel
Prize. Startled, she retorted, "Quit
your kidding. I don't think it's funny. Whoever put
you up to it, I think it's a sick joke." When
reporters continued to call, reality finally sank
in: Elion, Hitchings, and Sir James W. Black of the
University of London had indeed been awarded the
Prize in Physiology or Medicine, "for their
discoveries of important principles for drug
treatment."
With the main body of their work having been
done decades earlier, the prize came as a complete
surprise. Elion knew that Hitchings had been
nominated in the past, but she had no idea she
herself had ever been nominated. In fact, when
Hitchings and Elion were nominated as a pair, a
Nobel Committee member asked why Elion was
included, wondering if she had really contributed.
Only when a professional friend of Elion's pointed
out that Elion had been first author on many of the
early papers, and that her antiviral discoveries
had occurred after Hitchings retired, was the
committee finally convinced.
Elion's receipt of the Nobel Prize was
particularly significant, given the hurdles she had
had to overcome. Few Nobels have gone to scientists
working in the drug industry or those without
Ph.Ds, even fewer to women; Elion was only the
fifth female
Nobel laureate in Medicine, the ninth in
science in general.
Following the Nobel Prize, additional honors and
recognitions poured in. Elion was elected to the
National Academy of Science in 1990 and received
the National Medal of Science, the United States'
highest scientific honor, in 1991. Also in 1991,
she became the first woman inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame and was elected to
the National Women's Hall of Fame. The Nobel Prize
made Elion even more in demand as a speaker and a
spokeswoman, and her busy schedule quickly became
even busier.
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