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Dr. Ruth Benesch was one of the most cited women in science during the 1970s due to her unprecedented research about the respiratory system. She worked as a biochemical researcher with her husband Reinhold Benesch at Columbia University from 1960 to 1986, when Reinhold died. She continued her research at Columbia for another ten years until she retired in 1996.

Early Life
She was born as Ruth Erica Leroi in Paris, France on February 25, 1925 to Friedriche Bade and Helene Leroi. She was raised with her sister in Berlin, Germany by her mother, who held a doctorate in economics. Her biological father lived in Turkey until World War II ended, and her adopted father, Ernst Leroi, lived in Paris. Although they were religiously unaffiliated, they were forced to evacuate Germany to escape Nazi persecution during World War II. Ruth and her sister escaped to England via Kindertransport in May 1939 and completed their schooling at Stroud High School, while their mother remained hidden in Berlin until the end of the war in 1945.

Education
After she completed high school at Stroud High School, Ruth attended Birkbeck College until she graduated in 1946 with a B.Sc. A year after she completed her undergraduate degree, she moved to the United States and worked toward her PhD in biochemistry at Northwestern University, which she completed in 1951.

Family and Work Life
Ruth married her husband Reinhold Benesch in 1946, the same year she graduated from Birkbeck College. They met at a rubber factory where they both worked to support themselves through college (he graduated from Leeds University in 1941). Together, they moved to the United States and attended Northwestern University as graduate students. They raised two children together, Andrew (1956) and Susan (1964).

After she earned her PhD, Ruth worked at Johns Hopkins University, the State University of Iowa, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass. where she was an independent investigator before settling with her husband as a research associate at Columbia University. She was hired as a research associate in 1960 and was eventually promoted to an associate professor in 1972, and a full professor in 1980.

Other Affiliates
Ruth Benesch was a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Society of Biochemistry (ASBC), and American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Discoveries
Ruth Benesch and her husband Reinhold worked mainly with a protein called hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in the blood. Their earlier research focused on the role of sulfur, known as the thiol group when bonded to a hydrogen, in proteins, and developed new methods for introducing thiol groups and determining their numbers in proteins.

Their greatest known discovery was 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, which is vital to the oxygen-hemoglobin system. This protein helps hemoglobin transport oxygen throughout the body by loosening the bonds between the hemoglobin and oxygen, and the Beneschs were able determine the mechanisms behind this phenomena. Her research greatly improved science's understanding of how hemoglobin functions within the respiratory system, and is cited as one of several scientists that pioneered this field of study. She published studies detailing the two types of protein necessary for proper hemoglobin function, as well as the differences between the normal and mutated versions of the proteins. This research greatly contributed to later studies of sickle cell anemia.

Her work has also been included multiple times in various journals and textbooks.

Publications
During her career, Benesch published over 80 research papers.

Later Life
Ruth Benesch continued her research after her husband died until she retired in 1996. During this time, she continued to search for a synthetic protein that could replicate the effects of hemoglobin in the body, and thus help people with sickle cell anemia live regular lives. Although she was unsuccessful, scientists today continue to build on her research in the hopes of finally discovering a cure.

She died at the age of 75 of vascular disease. She was survived by her two children, Andrew and Susan.