. .Not just for her long, inspiring life (besides her work -which she continued to age 90!- she married and raised two children, too while she garnered her multiple degrees), but also to learn the history of thalidomide and her key role in keeping thalidomide off the US market, standing firm against pressure from Big Pharma to get the drug on the market.
"Fussy bureaucrats" (albeit one with an MD and Ph.D. in pharmacology) save the day! It's because of her work, and particularly her role in the thalidomide incident, that the FDA no longer lets pharmaceutical companies release drugs to doctors for "testing" with patients before the drug receives approval from the FDA for commercial distribution (can you imagine that that should have ever been OK?!); and why the FDA insists, and should always insist, on solid scientific and clinical trials of new drugs .

What an inspiring woman. Here's to you, Frances Oldham Kelsey.