The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Nobel Prize Winner’ Category

Mother Teresa was CEO of the Missionaries of Charity, a large and growing organization in India. She dedicated most of her life to working with the poorest of the poor, and was practical in that she catered to both their spiritual and physical needs. “In 1982, during the siege of Beirut, Lebanon, [Mother Teresa] negotiated a cease-fire between Israeli and Palestinian forces. This cease-fire allowed her to evacuate mentally handicapped patients from a hospital on the front lines of the battle.”

Name: Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu)

Mother Teresa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Birth Date: August 1910 – September 1997

Job Functions: Nun

Fields: Charity

Known For: Caring for the poorest of the poor and homeless in Calcutta

To get the most from The Invisible Mentor Profile of Mother Teresa, while you are reading it, answer the following questions:

1. Are their similarities between Mother Teresa and yourself?
2. What are your five takeaways from the profile?
3. When you think of the person profiled, what thoughts immediately come to mind?
4. In what ways can you use the information in your work and life?
5. Look at the process you use to get your job done, think of ways to improve the process and make it more efficient. Is there a way to eliminate a step or combine steps? Also, is there a way to do your work in a more cost-efficient manner?
6. After reading the profile, what is one concrete action you can take?

Biography

Mother Teresa was born and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Macedonia under the rule of the Ottoman Empire (See Gertrude Bell profile in wisdom). At 12 years old she knew that she wanted to work for the poor, and during her teenage years she gained clarity and focus on what she wanted to do.

At age 18, Mother Teresa left home and joined the Sisters of Loretto, a community of Irish nuns who ran schools in India. She took the name Teresa as a tribute to the French saint Thèrése de Lisieux and Teresa of Avila (See Teresa of Avila profile). Mother Teresa received training in Dublin, Ireland and Darjeeling, India – she took her first religious vows in 1928 and her final vows in 1937. One of her first assignment, which lasted 17 years, was to teach – catechism, history and geography – at St Mary’s High School (1930 – 1944) and subsequently served as principal at a school (1944 – 1948) for privileged Bengali girls in Calcutta.

Mother Teresa left the convent life in 1946, because while riding on a train, she received a calling from God to work directly with the poor, and received permission from the Vatican to leave the Sisters of Loretto. To embark on her journey to directly serve the poor, Mother Teresa received intensive medical training with the American Medical Missionary Sisters in Patna, India. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a new order of nuns, and in 1950 she received official status as a religious community within the Archdiocese of Calcutta. The goal of the Missionaries of Charity was to provide care for the hungry, naked, crippled, blind and those with leprosy.

Mother Teresa learned Bengali and Hindi to be able to better serve the poor and received India citizenship in 1948.

She gathered children from the slums who didn’t attend school and taught them, and ended up attracting much needed financial support and volunteers. Mother Teresa dedicated her life to serve the poorest of the poor. Her religious community ministered to the dying so they would be filled with dignity and love as they transitioned from this world. Over the years Mother Teresa was criticized for the small scope of her work, but even though some may have thought that what she was doing was only a drop in the bucket, she knew that it mattered to those who received the help.

In 1957, Missionaries of Charity started to work with people with leprosy and they also opened a home for orphans and abandoned children. And in 1959 they expanded their work outside of Calcutta, and soon had a presence in 22 Indian cities. Pope Paul VI granted the Missionaries of Charity a pontifical order, which paved the way for their expansion beyond India. In 1969, Mother Teresa allowed a group called the International Association of Co-Workers of Mother Teresa to affiliate itself with Missionaries of Charity, to assist with their work.

In the 1970s they expanded into other countries, Jordan (Amman), England (London), United States (Harlem, and New York City). Over the years, The Missionaries of Charity received a lot of awards and media attention for their work, and Mother Teresa was very skilled at using it to benefit the work they did.

For instance, in 1968, Mother Teresa was interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridge for a documentary for the British Broadcasting Corporation called Something Beautiful for God and as a result, in 1971, he published a book of the same name. In 1971, she was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for her service to the poor, and in 1985, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Mother Teresa received a grant from Joseph Kennedy Jr. Foundation. All these accolades made Mother Teresa well-recognized, which brought her publicity and financial support – she always deflected the spotlight from herself and on to the works of the group. Mother Teresa was voted America’s Most Admired Woman in 1980, 1986, 1995 and 1996.

By 1979, the Missionaries of Charity group had over 200 operations in 25 countries. The expansions continued into Russia, they opened a home for AIDS patients in San Francisco, California in 1991. And at the time of her death in 1997, Mother Teresa had created over 600 homes in 130 countries, offering food centres, orphanages, homes for AIDS patients, people with leprosy, shelters for battered women, dug addicts, the poor and unemployed. Her religious order had 6,000 nuns and 100,000 lay volunteers.

An important reason for the Missionaries of Charity’s accelerated growth, funding and publicity was because of Mother Teresa who was viewed as pleasant and direct, and respected for her values. She was apolitical and concerned only with finding solutions; Mother Teresa never criticized governments for their policies that contributed to poverty. She was never angry or indignant but instead focused on how they could alleviate the problem. One thing Mother Teresa spoke out about was capital punishment and war. Mother Teresa was criticized for her opposition to abortion and contraception, especially in an overpopulated country as India.

Like the rest of us, Mother Teresa had her shortcomings. According to The Times, Great Lives: A Century of Obituaries, “Mother Teresa had her human failings: she was spokesman for her community so that, until her retirement, one rarely heard the views expressed of any of her nuns; she was adamant in what she believed and dictatorial within her houses, which she visited regularly all over the world.”

After her death, Mother Teresa was beatified by the Catholic Church, the first step in the canonization process to becoming recognized as a saint. She is now formally recognized as Blessed Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa’s Steps to Success

• Knew what she wanted to do and took the necessary action.
• Made changes as was necessary.
• Was pleasant, direct, humble, and intelligent.
• Apolitical and didn’t play the blame game and instead focused on solutions.
• Skilled at using media to further the work of the Missionaries of Charity.

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Works Referenced/Cited

Encyclopedia of World Biography

UXL Encyclopedia of World Biograph

The Times, Great Lives: A Century of Obituaries

World Religions Reference Library

Contemporary American Religion

Encyclopedia of Modern Asia

New Catholic Encyclopedia

Women in World History

Prejudice in the Modern World Reference Library

Gertrude Belle Elion, along with George H. Hitchings with whom she worked with close to 40 years, and Sir James W. Black (British biochemist) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.” Elion graduated from Hunter College with a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry in 1937 during the Great Depression when it was extremely difficult for a woman to find a job in science. She didn’t let that stop her, Elion worked as a high school teacher, and as a lab assistant until she completed her Masters of Science degree in chemistry – which she did at nights – in 1941. It is great for humankind that Elion did not give up because her research led to the discovery of drugs to treat leukemia, malaria, gout, herpes and AIDS.

Image via Wikipedia

Name: Gertrude Belle Elion

Birth Date: January 1918 – February 1999

Job Functions: Medical Researcher, Biochemist

Fields: Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Immunology, Virology

Known For: Research led to the discovery of drugs to treat leukemia, malaria, gout, herpes and AIDS.

While in high school, Gertrude Belle Elion knew that she wanted to conducted research in cancer, and set out to achieve her goal by attaining the proper education credentials. She achieved her goals but not necessarily in the manner she expected. For instance, she was pursuing her doctorate degree part-time at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute while conducting serious research at work, and it got to the point where Elion was given an ultimatum, she had to make a choice, focus on her work or focus on her formal education full-time. She opted for work, and that was okay for her because she had a remarkable career. Elion was the first person to receive a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine who wasn’t a physician or didn’t have a doctorate degree. The work she did mattered that much to humanity and she proved herself worthy by her contributions to medical research.

After Elion completed her first degree during the Great Depression, she couldn’t secure a job in science. So instead, she started her career instructing high school and nursing students and volunteered at a chemistry laboratory. In1939, two years after she completed her first degree, she embarked on her master’s degree part-time, which she completed in 1941.  World War II opened the way for women scientists, and in 1944, Elion secured a job as a biochemist for Wellcome Research Laboratories. For 40 years, she worked with George Herbert Hitchings, and together they pioneered pharmaceutical research. Most successful people attain success by working with others who supported and complemented their skills and abilities. Elion and Hitchings worked very well together, and as a team they had phenomenal achievements, ultimately resulting in a Nobel Prize in 1988.

Elion rose through the ranks at Wellcome Research Laboratories – she started off as biochemist then was promoted to senior research chemist, to head of the Department of Experimental Therapy.

The Science Behind What They Did

Hitchings proposed that “Since all cells require nucleic acids, one might be able to stop the growth of rapidly dividing cells such as bacteria and tumor cells by substituting false building blocks, or antagonists of nucleic acid bases, in the synthesis of nucleic acid. Thus the replication of the unwanted cells might be prevented.”

With that premise in mind, Elion set to work on purines, which are nitrogenous bases that are important constituents of DNA. At that time, James D. Watson and Francis Crick who used x-ray diffraction data collected by Rosalind Franklin, had not yet proposed the double helix or spiral staircase structure of the DNA molecule, which they actually did in 1953. In 1951, Elion and Hitchings developed several drugs, purine antimetabolites which interfered with purine use. The drugs were rigorously tested and a treatment for leukemia was discovered. The testing opened new pathways for other research including leukemia chemotherapy.

One of the new research pathways led to a drug which assisted in successful kidney transplants, and another which treated gouts. In 1968, Hitchings and Elion returned to early research they had done on antiviral drugs, and developed a drug that was effective in treating herpes since 1981 without affecting normal cells. In 1986, researchers who had been trained by Hitchings and Elion developed AZT, the first drug used to treat AIDS.

Elion’s name appeared on 45 patents, and she received 25 honorary doctorates and was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research. Gertrude Belle Elion’s work matters because she not only helped to create treatments for many life threatening diseases, but her worked advanced the understanding of cellular metabolism. After she retired, she continued some of her work through the World Health Organization, assisted students in medical research, and served on many related boards.

For those who would like to sink their teeth into the science of what Gertrude Belle Elion did, please refer to the sources cited/referenced for this profile.

Gertrude Belle Elion’s Steps to Success

• Knew she wanted to be a cancer researcher and pursued her goals starting with the proper education.
• Persistence: When Elion couldn’t get a job in science during the Great Depression, she volunteered at a medical laboratory, and pursued further education.
• Worked with someone who complemented her skills.
• To accomplish what she did in life, Elion had to know how to keep her ego in check. In addition, Hitchings proposed how to target their research and she acted on it.
• Knew how to make tough choices – focus on work or pursue doctorate full-time.
• Solved problems and mysteries that positively impacted humankind.
• Elion gave back by mentoring young researchers through the Wellcome Foundation.

Why Gertrude Belle Elion’s Contribution Matters

Gertrude Belle Elion’s contribution matters because her research led to the discovery of drugs to treat leukemia, malaria, gout, herpes and AIDS.

Pearls of Wisdom from Gertrude Belle Elion

• Understand the fundamentals of what you do, which will enable you to make innovative changes to the way things get done in your field.
• The road to success is seldom paved with a smooth surface. Gertrude Belle Elion was awarded a Nobel Prize for the Scientific Discovery of Several Drugs, but before she could get into her field, she had to start her career instructing high school and nursing students and volunteer at a chemistry laboratory.
• Pass on your wisdom by mentoring others. Elion mentored young researchers.

Why Gertrude Belle Elion Would Make an Excellent Invisible Mentor

Gertrude Belle Elion is an excellent invisible mentor because her life is a demonstration that persistence pays. Elion had to make tough choices and live with them – she had to choose between work and pursuing her doctoral studies. She chose work and humankind benefited significantly because of the results of her research.

Further Reading

Gertrude Belle Elion Biography

Chemistry Explained: Gertrude Belle Elion

Sources Cited/Referenced

Science and Its Times, Volume 7

Encyclopedia of World Biography

New Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Chemistry: Foundations of Applications

World of Microbiology and Immunology