Orange Alert

SU Alumna One of the First Women to Receive a Ph.D. from an American University

Cornelia Clapp reading a paper.

Posted on: May 11, 2022

by Maria Kohchinskaya

Cornelia M. Clapp was the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in biology in the United States when she graduated from Syracuse University in 1889, according to the Marine Biological Laboratory. Clapp, a prominent zoologist and educator, was also the first woman to be employed as a researcher at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and the institution's first female trustee.

Read more about Cornelia M. Clapp's career.