Biochemist, Womens' Pioneer. Her innovative use of stable isotopes to study enzyme function and development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to map protein structure earned her the National Medal of Science. Raised in New York City, the child of Russian immigrants, she graduated from high school at 14, and from Hunter College with a degree in chemistry at 17. She received a master's in physical chemistry from Columbia University at 18, working as a baby sitter because laboratory assistant jobs were reserved for men. As academic positions in her field were often designated "male, Christian", Cohn took a job in Langley, Virginia, with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (today, NASA) where she ran early experiments in fuel injection. Returning to Columbia, she received her Ph.D. in 1938, the same year she married physicist Henry Primakoff (deceased 1983). After working for Dr. Harold Urey at Columbia, Dr. Cohn held positions at Cornell University, and at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, where she did her pioneering research into enzymes using the stable isotopes C-13 and O-18, and studied proteins via NMR. In 1960, she followed her husband to the University of Pennsylvania ("Penn"), where she held a professorship in biochemistry until taking emerita status in 1982. In retirement, Dr. Cohn continued to maintain an office at Penn, and to be an active researcher. She left around 160 published articles, and was the only woman to be editor of the Journal of Biochemistry, a position she held for 10 years. Her academic honors were many: the Gavin-Olin Medal (for women in science) in 1963, the American Heart Association Lifetime Career Award in 1964, the Protein Society Stein-Moore Award, and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971. Dr. Cohn received the National Medal of Science from President Reagan in 1982, and was named to the National Women's Hall of Fame the day after her death.