Margarita Silva-Hutner (28 November 1915 – 6 February 2002).[1] was a mycologist, and known as the “Matriarch of Medical Mycology”.[2]

Biography

Silva-Hutner was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.[1] She graduated with a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico in 1936.[1] She then worked at the Columbia University School of Tropical Medicine in San Juan under Arturo L. Carrión for 13 years.[2] Silva-Hunter’s work with Carrión focused on fungal infections, especially chromoblastomycosis.[2]

Silva-Hutner began attending Harvard University on a scholarship in 1950 and joined the Mycology Laboratory at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center later that year.[2] She received her doctorate in 1952.[1]

In 1956, Silva-Hutner became director of the Mycology Laboratory and an assistant professor in the College of Physicians & Surgeons.[1] She was promoted to associate professor in 1963[1] and remained on the faculty at Columbia University for over fifty years.[3] She retired from her position as director in 1981 but continued to teach.[1] Silva-Hutner died February 6, 2002, in New York, NY after a lengthy illness.[1]

Personal life

In 1956, she married Seymour H. Hutner.[1]

Legacy

Silva-Hutner was a founding member of the Medical Mycological Society of New York.[3][4] Her research contributed to the development of Nystatin, the first antifungal medicine approved for human use.[3] She served as Chair of the Nomination Committee for the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas at the time of its founding and was active within the organization.[5]

Silva-Hutner’s work on chromoblastomycosis laid the groundwork for further research on this pathogen, which remains among the most difficult fungal infections to manage.[6] She published more than fifty articles on the biology and taxonomy of pathogenic fungi over the course of her career.[2]

Honors and awards

In 1986 she was the recipient of the Medical Mycological Society of the America’s Rhonda Benham Award.[7] In 1996, she was given an award for “Excellence in Medical Mycology” at a symposium called “A Diagnostic Medley of Medical Mycology.”[8] Silva-Hutner was also a Fellow and Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Margarita Silva-Hutner Medical Mycology Laboratory collection | Archives and Special Collections". www.library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 cmm_admin (2016-05-29). "Women—Long Denied a Role at P&S—Helped Shape Medicine in the 20th Century". Columbia Medicine Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
  3. 1 2 3 "Margarita Hutner - Obituary". www.legacy.com. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
  4. ↑ Espinel-Ingroff, A. (April 1996). "History of medical mycology in the united states". Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 9 (2): 235–272. doi:10.1128/CMR.9.2.235-272.1996. ISSN 0893-8512. PMC 172892. PMID 8964037.
  5. ↑ "History". Medical Mycological Society of the Americas. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
  6. ↑ Krzyściak, Paweł M.; Pindycka-Piaszczyńska, Małgorzata; Piaszczyński, Michał (October 2014). "Chromoblastomycosis". Advances in Dermatology and Allergology/Postȩpy Dermatologii i Alergologii. 31 (5): 310–321. doi:10.5114/pdia.2014.40949. ISSN 1642-395X. PMC 4221348. PMID 25395928.
  7. ↑ "Rhoda Benham Awardees". Medical Mycological Society of the Americas. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
  8. 1 2 Espinel-Ingroff, A.; Weitzman, I. (2004). "Obituary: Margarita Silva-Hutner". Mycopathologia. 154 (3): 109–110. doi:10.1023/A:1016002215210. S2CID 36292253.
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