SHERRILL, Mary, American physical chemist, 1888-1968. Mary worked on synthesis of new anti-malarial drugs (quinazoline derivatives). Her career was spent mainly at Mt. Holyoke from 1924-54, a professor from 1931, and then  Chair of the Chemistry Dept from 1946. Mary had some involvement with the Chemical Warfare Service during 1918-21, the research concerned creating non-toxic gases that would upset the nasal senses. It is unclear what was the outcome of this research. However, Mary holds a patent relating to this work. A lot of her studies involved UV spectroscopy on organic compounds, later she used dipole moments to elucidate molecular structures. During WW2 the anti-malarial drug quinine became unavailable, so she used these skills to synthesise new drugs. In 1947 the Garvan Medal was awarded to her for this work.

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