Nettie Stevens Research Paper

Nettie Stevens was an American women who was born in Vermont on July 7th, 1861. Her mother died when she was only two years old. Her father remarried and the family moved to Westford, Massachusetts. Growing up as a women during this time it was hard to get education. Nettie’s father was a carpenter and was able to afford giving his children the opportunity to go to school. Stevens was a very bright student. She attended a Westford Academy where she graduated 2 years before her graduating classmates. She became a teacher and supervisor but wanted to further her education.
Nettie knew she had a love for science. It took her longer than many to go back to school but she did go back in her thirties. At age 35, she went to California to attend Leland Stanford University for her bachelor’s degree where she majored in physiology. During the summer she spend a lot of time working at Stanford’s Hopkins Seaside Laboratory. Here she studies cells and microscopic anatomy of organisms. She stayed at Stanford, wrote a thesis called Studies on Ciliate Infusoria, and got her master’s degree in biology. While going for her master’s degree, Stevens discovered Licnophora macfarlandi and Boveria subcylindrcia. These are species of single celled organisms. This discovery allowed Stevens to expand her master’s degree. She added

She went here to get her doctorate in cytology. Cytology is the study of cells. Stevens did such a wonderful job that she was awarded a Presidents European Fellowship. It was an offer to study abroad at the Naples Zoological Station in Italy and at the University of Wurzburg in Germany. She studied and spent time in Theodor Boveri’s lab. Theodore Boveri was working on chromosomes in heredity at the time. Here she discovered an interest in heredity, most specifically chromosomes. She achieved her goal and got her PH.D at the Bryn Mawr University. She received many scholarships and research career