Loading AI tools
Margarita Silva-Hutner (28 November 1915 – 6 February 2002).[1] was a mycologist, and known as the “Matriarch of Medical Mycology”.[2]
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]
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]
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]
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
