Multimedia Collection
Jewels in a Test Tube: Biochemist Lynda Jordan
(Discovering Women series)
VHS
60 minutes
Q130 .D51 1995 tape 2
As a teenager growing up in a dangerous, low-income housing project in Boston, Lynda Jordan was, as she puts it, "on the cusp of becoming a delinquent child." Today she's a tenured associate professor in biochemistry, working on an exciting project: unlocking the secrets of a key human enzyme that's vital to one of life's most fundamental processes, giving birth. The inspiring story of Jordan's journey towards that goal, and of her efforts to encourage the next generation of African American scientists like herself, is at the heart of this profile. She talks about the importance of her undergraduate years at an historically black university, a place where she could feel "strong, reinforced, affirmed" in her identity as an African American woman while learning the skills needed to go on to a Ph.D. from MIT and a fellowship at the prestigious Institut Pasteur in Paris.
Contact Us: (541) 737-2538,
