# Kitty Ponse

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Short description|Swiss zoologist and endocrinologist (1897–1982)}}
[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van de familie Ponse met visite in de tuin TMnr 60028997.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of the Ponse family from the [Tropenmuseum](/source/Tropenmuseum). Kitty Ponse is the baby pictured on the left.]]
'''Kitty Ponse''' (5 September 1897 – 10 February 1982) was a Swiss [zoologist](/source/zoologist) and [endocrinologist](/source/endocrinologist). She was a professor at the [University of Geneva](/source/University_of_Geneva) and received the Swiss [Otto Naegeli Prize](/source/Otto_Naegeli_Prize) in 1961.

==Life and career==
Ponse was born in [Sumatra](/source/Sumatra), then part of the [Dutch East Indies](/source/Dutch_East_Indies), to Dutch parents in 1897.<ref name=wuest>{{cite journal|title= Kitty Ponse 1897–1982 |last1=Wüest|first1=Jean|first2=Marino|last2=Buscaglia|doi=10.1016/0016-6480(84)90053-4 |journal=General and Comparative Endocrinology|volume=56|issue=2|pages=330–331|year=1984|pmid=6392012|doi-access=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.ponse/poppie.pdf|title=Les femmes dans la mémoire de Genève: du XVe au XXe siècle|date=2005|publisher=Éditions Suzanne Hurter|editor-last=Ziegler|editor-first=Erica Deuber|location=Genève|language=fr|chapter=Kitty Ponse|editor-last2=Tikhonov|editor-first2=Natalia|chapter-url=https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.ponse/poppie.pdf|archive-date=22 November 2021|access-date=5 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122213433/https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.ponse/poppie.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> At the age of eight she and her family moved to [Geneva](/source/Geneva), Switzerland, where she later studied science at the [University of Geneva](/source/University_of_Geneva).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FlxsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT1262|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century|first1=Marilyn|last1=Ogilvie|first2=Joy|last2=Harvey|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=9781135963422}}</ref> She completed a doctoral thesis at the University of Geneva in 1922 that focused on [embryological development](/source/embryology).<ref name=unige>{{cite web|url=https://biologie.unige.ch/en/the-section/the-hall-of-fame/|title=The Hall of Fame|publisher=Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva|accessdate=5 November 2021}}</ref> While the focus of her earlier research and publications was pure zoology, including tail regeneration in lizards, she later developed a particular interest in [sex determination](/source/sex-determination_system) and [sexual differentiation](/source/sexual_differentiation) in amphibians.<ref name=wuest/> In the mid-1920s, she conducted experiments in which she successfully inverted the sex of toads;<ref name=wuest/> ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' carried a story about Ponse's work in 1926 with the headline "Says she changes the sex of toads".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/02/26/archives/says-she-changes-the-sex-of-toads-biologist-exhibits-transformed.html|title=SAYS SHE CHANGES THE SEX OF TOADS; Biologist Exhibits Transformed Amphibians at the University of Geneva. MALES MADE TO LAY EGGS Females Shown to Develop Masculine Qualities Through Glandular Grafting|work=The New York Times|date=26 February 1926|accessdate=5 November 2021}}</ref> Her work on sexual differentiation in vertebrates was compiled in her 1949 book ''La différenciation du sexe et l'intersexualité''.<ref name=wuest/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ponse|first=Kitty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UhBAAAAYAAJ|title=La différenciation du sexe et l'intersexualité chez les vertébrés: facteurs héréditaires et hormones|date=1949|publisher=F. Rouge|language=fr}}</ref>

Ponse's other publications in the field of endocrinology addressed the function of the [thyroid](/source/thyroid) gland, the biochemical pathways in [steroid](/source/steroid) hormone production, the communication between the [pituitary](/source/pituitary) gland and the [gonad](/source/gonad)s. She also collaborated with French biologist [Émile Guyénot](/source/%C3%89mile_Guy%C3%A9not) on the first purifications of [gonadotropin](/source/gonadotropin) hormones from the pituitary.<ref name=wuest/> Ponse taught at the University of Geneva for over forty years and was appointed a professor of experimental endocrinology in 1961.<ref name=wuest/><ref name=unige/> She received the [Otto Naegeli Prize](/source/Otto_Naegeli_Prize) in 1961 and the [Montyon Prize](/source/Montyon_Prize) of the [French Academy of Sciences](/source/French_Academy_of_Sciences) in 1950.<ref name=unige/> She was a cofounder of the journal ''[Acta Endocrinologica](/source/Acta_Endocrinologica)'' in 1948.<ref name=wuest/>

In 2022, a street was renamed for her in Geneva (from rue de l’Université to rue Kitty-Ponse).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rue Kitty-PONSE {{!}} Noms géographiques du canton de Genève |url=https://ge.ch/noms-geographiques/voie/geneve/rue-kitty-ponse |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=ge.ch |language=fr |archive-date=16 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221216020313/https://ge.ch/noms-geographiques/voie/geneve/rue-kitty-ponse |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponse, Kitty}}
Category:1897 births
Category:1982 deaths
Category:20th-century Swiss zoologists
Category:Swiss endocrinologists
Category:University of Geneva alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of Geneva
Category:People from Sumatra
Category:20th-century Swiss women scientists
Category:Swiss people of Dutch descent

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kitty Ponse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Ponse) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Ponse?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.