| Martha Cowles Chase | |
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| Born | November 30, 1927 Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA |
| Died | August 8, 2003 Lorain, Ohio, USA |
| Residence | USA |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Nationality | USA |
| Fields | Genetics |
| Alma mater | College of Wo, University of Southern California |
Martha Cowles Chase (November 30, 1927 – August 8, 2003), also known as Martha C. Epstein,[1] was an American geneticist famously known for being a member of the 1952 team (see Alfred Hershey) which experimentally showed that DNA rather than protein is the genetic material of life. She was greatly respected as a geneticist. Chase was born in 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1950 she received her bachelor's degree from The College of Wooster and in 1964 her PhD from the University of Southern California.
In 1952 she was a young laboratory assistant to American bacteriophage expert Alfred Hershey at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from the University of Southern California. This was where the well-known Hershey-Chase experiment was performed. A series of personal setbacks through the 1960s ended her career in science.[1] She spent decades suffering from a form of dementia that robbed her of short-term memory. She died of pneumonia on August 8, 2003, at the age of 75.[1]