PHOTO/UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES • TRANSLATION/MICHELLE MULLOWNEY ’17
Katie Diary BY KATIE HENRY ’19
Antonius Kennelly, CSJ, ’26, PhD, (1901–1995) is known for her role as the third president of St. Catherine University, but she accomplished much more in her lifetime. Sr. Antonius led the then College of St. Catherine natural sciences division for nearly 20 years and also taught chemistry. She held a PhD in chemistry from the University of Munich, where she studied with Nobel Prize winner Dr. Heinrich Otto
Wieland. She studied in Europe just before WWII, and her reputation as a chemist earned her an invitation to Marie Curie’s laboratory, the Institut du Radium in Paris, in 1933 (as seen in this letter). The letter says, “Sir, It goes without saying that Sister Antonius Kennelly will receive a warm welcome at my laboratory and may visit it. However, I’m not sure I will be in Paris at the time she’s supposed to come, and in that case, I will entrust my daughter Mme. Irene Curie-Joliot with her welcome.” The University archives has a large collection of papers from Sr. Antonius. Read more at stkate.edu/KennellyPapers.
stkate.edu
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