Dora Goldstein

Born as Dora Benedict in Milton, Massachusetts to George Wheeler Benedict and Marjory Pierce Benedict on April 25, 1922, Goldstein went to Bryn Mawr College to obtain a degree in chemistry. Her studies were interrupted by the advent of World War II, which led her to help war technologies by conducting chemical research for the government. Afterwards, she went to Harvard Medical School as a part of its first ever women-allowed class and studied with doctor and pharmacologist Avram Goldstein, whom she married. She finished her Master's Degree in 1949. ==Career==

In 1955, Goldstein moved to Palo Alto, California with her husband for both of them to become faculty at Stanford University. They both worked at creating the university curriculum for the science program that had been previously lacking. She would also become a lecturer in the pharmacology course at the university, where she would use new computer-based simulations in the 1980s to teach the molecular structure and chemical composition of pharmacological products. ==Research==

The overall focus of Goldstein's lifelong research was on alcohol addiction and how alcohol enters into the body and causes effects by permeating cell membranes. Then, in multiple studies throughout the early 1970s, she tested the effects of ethanol on mice and increasing levels of alcohol withdrawal. These mice would serve as general models for the effects of alcoholism on the biochemistry of an organism and other testing of biological and chemical processes of alcohol. Her findings were published in several journal articles along with the textbook she wrote titled Pharmacology of Alcohol, which was published in 1983 by the Oxford University Press. She presented further research in 1986 at the International Medical Advisory Conference on how alcohol alters the flexibility of cell membranes upon exposure and long term effects include increased membrane rigidity, but also with a higher resistance to alcohol's effects. Speaking at the first National Conference on Alcoholism Research in 1987, she said that advances in understanding of biochemical markers for alcoholism will lead to the ability to determine those who are genetically predisposed for alcoholism and allow for doctors to prescribe lifestyle changes to minimize the risk. ==Organizations==

After its formation as a sub-organization from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Goldstein would act as president for the Research Society on Alcoholism. ==Awards and honors==

Goldstein was given the Award for Scientific Excellence from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in 1981 and the Jellinek Memorial Award in 1996, both for her work on alcoholism. ==Personal life==

After conducting her studies with him, Goldstein would later marry Avram Goldstein and they would have four children together. She died aged 89 on October 2, 2011, after falling in her home. Goldstein was active in social justice movements throughout her life, frequently participating in the civil rights movement during the 1960s and becoming vice-president of her local chapter of the NAACP. She also marched every year in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade during the 1990s, along with being on the national board for the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). ==Bibliography==