An expert in the development and standardization of bacterial vaccines, Margaret Pittman advanced the fight against such diseases as whooping cough (pertussis), tetanus, typhoid, cholera, anthrax, meningitis, and conjunctivitis.

Pittman was born on January 20, 1901 in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, the daughter of a physician, James ("Dr. Jim") Pittman, and the former Virginia Alice McCormick. The family moved to nearby Cincinnati, Arkansas, in 1909. Her father was the only doctor in that rural area, and she sometimes helped him on his rounds or with anesthesia. Her formal education was sporadic until three years of high school in Prairie Grove and two years of music seminary in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. As a member of the class of 1923 at Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas, she double-majored in mathematics and biology, and won the Walter Edwin Hogan Mathematics Award in 1922. From 1923 until 1925 in Searcy, Arkansas, she taught and served as principal at Galloway Woman's College...