Katherine "Kitty" Brehme Warren (1909–1991) was an American geneticist and scientific editor known for her work at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...

Early life and education

Warren was born Katherine Suydam Brehme in New York City in 1909, to parents Almira and Franklin Brehme. She graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

in 1930 and earned a doctorate in zoology from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She married fellow scientist Charles O. Warren in 1939.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Brehme was a student of

Calvin Bridges Calvin Blackman Bridges (January 11, 1889 – December 27, 1938) was an American scientist known for his contributions to the field of genetics. Along with Alfred Sturtevant and H.J. Muller, Bridges was part of Thomas Hunt Morgan's famous "Fly R ...

and after his death the Assistant Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Milislav Demerec pushed for Warren's appointment to complete some of Bridges's unfinished work. The project was supported by a fellowship from the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in W ...

and the completed work, ''The Mutants of Drosophila melanogaster'' (1944), became a classic in the field. For decades "Bridges and Brehme" served as an essential reference for geneticists and later formed the backbone of subsequent scholarship and, ultimately, the online resource

FlyBase FlyBase is an online bioinformatics database and the primary repository of genetic and molecular data for the insect family Drosophilidae. For the most extensively studied species and model organism, ''Drosophila melanogaster'', a wide range of da ...

. Warren served as the executive director of the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. As Symposia editor from 1941-1958, she was responsible for manuscript preparation, proofreading, and indexing. In addition to her serious editorial duties, she introduced a nonexistent scholar, J. C. Foothills of Tennessee Intermountain College, whose name was derived from her favorite expression of frustration: "Jesus Christ in the foothills!"

Teaching and administration

Warren taught biology at Adelphi University, Hofstra University, Cornell University Medical College, and Wellesley College. She later spent a decade as a grants administrator at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, retiring in 1971.

Personal life

Warren suspended her teaching career for several years after the birth of her children, but did not interrupt her work with the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia. The couple divorced in 1961, with Warren retaining custody of her three teenage daughters.Katherine Brehme Warren to Bentley Glass, July 20, 1961, Bentley Glass papers, American Philosophical Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Katherine Brehme 1909 births 1991 deaths American geneticists Barnard College alumni American women geneticists Scientists from New York (state) Columbia University alumni 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists