Margaret Pittman

Margaret Jane Pittman (1901-1995) was an American pioneering bacteriologist whose research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on typhoid, cholera, and pertussis helped the development of vaccinations against these and other diseases. Pittman also became the first woman to lead a NIH laboratory when in 1957, she was appointed chief of their Laboratory of Bacterial Products, a position she held until 1971. In the 1960s she was a key NIH participant in developing standards for cholera vaccine in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization's campaign to control cholera in the region that is now Bangladesh. After her retirement in 1971, she continued to work for the World Health Organization as a consultant on vaccine standards, working in Cairo and Madrid and for the State Institute for Serum and Vaccine in Iran and Connaught Laboratories, Ltd., in Toronto.