COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van de familie Ponse met visite in de tuin TMnr 60028997

Kitty Ponse (5 September 1897 – 10 February 1982) was a Swiss

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

and

endocrinologist Endocrinology (from ''endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental events ...

. She was a professor at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

and received the Swiss

Otto Naegeli Prize The Otto-Naegeli-Preis is a Swiss award for medical research that is awarded every two years. It is one of the most prestigious Swiss medical awards and is given with an award sum of 200,000 Swiss Francs. It was established in 1960 and is named a ...

in 1961.

Life and career

Ponse was born in

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, then part of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, to Dutch parents in 1897. At the age of eight she and her family moved to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland, where she later studied science at the

. She completed a doctoral thesis at the University of Geneva in 1922 that focused on

embryological development Prenatal development () involves the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal deve ...

. While the focus of her earlier research and publications was pure zoology, including tail regeneration in lizards, she later developed a particular interest in sex determination and

sexual differentiation Sexual differentiation is the process of development of the sex differences between males and females from an undifferentiated zygote. Sex differentiation is usually distinct from sex determination; sex determination is the designation of the de ...

in amphibians. In the mid-1920s, she conducted experiments in which she successfully inverted the sex of toads; ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' carried a story about Ponse's work in 1926 with the headline "Says she changes the sex of toads". Her work on sexual differentiation in vertebrates was compiled in her 1949 book ''La différenciation du sexe et l'intersexualité''. Ponse's other publications in the field of endocrinology addressed the function of the

thyroid The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans, it is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck below the Adam's apple. It consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by ...

gland, the biochemical pathways in

steroid A steroid is an organic compound with four fused compound, fused rings (designated A, B, C, and D) arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes t ...

hormone production, the communication between the

pituitary The pituitary gland or hypophysis is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans, the pituitary gland is located at the base of the brain, protruding off the bottom of the hypothalamus. The pituitary gland and the hypothalamus control much of th ...

gland and the

gonad A gonad, sex gland, or reproductive gland is a Heterocrine gland, mixed gland and sex organ that produces the gametes and sex hormones of an organism. Female reproductive cells are egg cells, and male reproductive cells are sperm. The male gon ...

s. She also collaborated with French biologist Émile Guyénot on the first purifications of

gonadotropin Gonadotropins are glycoprotein hormones secreted by gonadotropic cells of the anterior pituitary of vertebrates. They are central to the complex endocrine system that regulates normal growth, sexual development, and reproductive function. T ...

hormones from the pituitary. Ponse taught at the University of Geneva for over forty years and was appointed a professor of experimental endocrinology in 1961. She received the

in 1961 and the

Montyon Prize The Montyon Prize () is a series of prizes awarded annually by the French Academy of Sciences and the Académie française. They are endowed by the French benefactor Baron de Montyon. History Prior to the start of the French Revolution, the B ...

of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1950. She was a cofounder of the journal '' Acta Endocrinologica'' in 1948. In 2022, a street was renamed for her in Geneva (from rue de l’Université to rue Kitty-Ponse).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponse, Kitty 1897 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Swiss zoologists Swiss endocrinologists University of Geneva alumni Academic staff of the University of Geneva People from Sumatra 20th-century Swiss women scientists Swiss people of Dutch descent