The American physicist Rosalyn S.Yalow (born 1921) made her most outstanding contribution to modern medicine in developing radioimmunoassay (RIA), for which she received a Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine (1977).

Rosalyn S.Yalow was born in New York City on July 19, 1921, the second child and only daughter of Simon Sussman and Clara Zipper. Her mother came to America from Germany at the age of four. Her father was born on the Lower East Side of New York. In her early childhood she was already an avid reader. Having no books at home, she took weekly trips to the public library with her brother, Alexander.

As she recalled, mathematics fascinated her while in the seventh grade. Later, at Walton High School, she was attracted to chemistry by an outstanding teacher, Mr. Mondzak. Her interest in physics developed at Hunter College, where two of her professors, Herbert N. Otis and Duane...