Hazen, Elizabeth Lee (1883–1975)

American scientist. Name variations: Lee Hazen. Born Elizabeth Lee Hazen, Aug 24, 1883, in Coahoma County, Mississippi; died June 24, 1975, at Mount St. Vincent Hospital, Seattle; dau. of William Edgar Hazen (cotton farmer) and Maggie (Harper) Hazen, both of whom died before she was 3; raised by Uncle Robert Hazen and Aunt Laura (Crawford) Hazen; Columbia University, MA in biology, 1923, PhD in microbiology, 1929; never married; no children.

Served as technician in Army diagnostic lab at Camp Sheridan, Alabama (1918–19); was assistant director of Clinical and Bacteriology Laboratory of Cook Hospital, Fairmont, WV (1919–23); appointed resident bacteriologist at Presbyterian Hospital (1928); was a member of teaching staff at College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University (1929); took charge of bacterial diagnosis lab at NY State Department of Health, Division of Laboratories and Research (1931); paired with chemist Rachel Fuller Brown to find antifungal agents (1948); with Brown, discovered nystatin (1950), the 1st highly active antifungal agent to be found safe and effective for use in humans; with Brown, applied for patent and assigned rights and royalties of nystatin to establish the Brown-Hazen Fund (1951); with Brown, discovered the antibacterial agent phalamycin (1953) and antifungal agent capacidin (1959). Received Squibb Award in Chemotherapy (1955), Rhoda Benham Award of Medical Mycology Society of the Americas (1972), and Chemical Pioneer Award (1975).

See also Richard S. Baldwin, The Fungus Fighters (Cornell University, 1981); and Women in World History.