Scientists with Disabilities Highlights

“In a world where it is so easy to neglect, deny, corrupt and suppress the truth, the scientist may find his discipline severe.” – Sir John Cornforth

Sir John Cornforth (1917-2013) was an Australian-British chemist. When he was 10 years old, Cornforth was diagnosed with otosclerosis, a disease of the middle ear that causes progressive hearing loss. Unfortunately, going completely deaf by the age of 20 led him to change career paths from law to chemistry. Cornforth struggled with hearing loss through his undergraduate career, making it more and more difficult to understand lectures. Nevertheless, he earned his B.S. in chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he primarily studied organic chemistry. Further, he pursued graduate studies in organic chemistry at Oxford, earning a doctorate in the field (1941). Soon after this, Cornforth significantly contributed towards the work on penicillin. In 1946, he began working at the National Institute for Medical Research, where he worked on synthesizing sterols, including cholesterol. For all his work in organic synthesis, he won a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975, alongside co-recipient Vladimir Prelog. Further, he was knighted in 1977 and honored with an honorary Doctor of Science from his alma mater, the University of Sydney.

“I don’t listen to other people, which served me well.” – John Dennehy

John Dennehy is a virologist at Queens College, City University of New York and a large advocate for the disabled community. Dennehy was born born deaf and faced communication and discrimination barriers in education. Dennehy recalls a lack of accessibility and constant doubt from his teachers. Despite this, Dennehy pursed a B.S. in biology at Merrimack College, an M.A. in zoology at the University of Idaho, and a Ph.D. at Clark University. Dennehy now leads a research group studying virus evolution and viral tracking. During the COVID19 pandemic, Dennehy’s group tracked variant emergence via wastewater sampling and proposed mutations occurred in long-lasting COVID19 cases. Dennehy’s group also discovered the first evidence of the Omicron variant. As a professor, Dennehy no longer hides his disability and uses his influence to advocate for the disabled community.