Shrewsbury
Historical Society
Established 1898
Mario - Fats - Caruso
1928 - 1993
Mario - Fats - Caruso
1928 - 1993
Min Chueh Chang
Dr. Min Chueh Chang was an extremely influential reproductive biologist best known for his work on “the pill”, the oral contraceptive that led to profound societal changes in America during the 1960s and 1970s.
Apart from his contribution to the pill, Chang was also a pioneer in the field of in-vitro fertilization, a loving husband and father, and a Shrewsbury resident.
Min Chueh Chang was born on October 10th, 1908 in Tai Yuan, China. The son of a magistrate, he was afforded a quality education – in particular, earning a bachelor’s degree in animal psychology from Tsinghua University, a distinguished research university in Beijing, in 1933.
After teaching at the university for some years, Chang won a prized fellowship to study abroad, and so he opted to study agricultural science at Edinburgh University. However, the school’s somewhat hostile attitude towards foreigners convinced him to relocate to Cambridge University after a year at Edinburgh, where he studied ram spermatozoa with Arthur Walton. In 1941, Chang was awarded a PhD in animal breeding by Cambridge, based on his work on the effects of testicular cooling on reproduction. Throughout his education and early career, Chang earned a reputation as a brilliant, endlessly-curious scientist.
Work at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology
In 1945, after several years at Cambridge, Chang moved to Shrewsbury to work with Dr. Gregory Pincus in the newly-created Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. Chang and Pincus worked to develop the foundation, which was located in Shrewsbury, and the two men quickly became close friends and colleagues. Despite its humble beginnings – Chang initially had to work as a night watchman when the foundation couldn’t afford to hire one – the Worcester Foundation quickly became renowned for its work in reproductive biology. In 1950, Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick, two of the leaders of the effort to create an oral contraceptive, contacted the foundation and began funding their efforts to design the pill.
The contraceptive itself, based on a chemical in a type of wild yam that had been used by the descendants of Aztecs as a form of birth control for centuries, was invented by 1950. In the years that followed, Chang and Pincus worked to perfect it, and by the late 1950’s, the pill was widely available in America.
Despite his most notable accomplishment being his contribution to the pill, Chang actually spent the vast majority of his career in other areas of reproductive science. His work in the area of in vitro fertilization spanned four decades, and it led directly to the birth of the first “test tube baby” in 1978. Two decades earlier, in 1959, Chang had been the first to demonstrate that IVF was possible in an experiment in which fertilized eggs from black rabbits that were transferred to white rabbits resulted in the birth of black young.
Other notable achievements that Chang made in the field include the discovery of the phenomenon of cold shock – the effect of lowering the temperature of sperm – and of the process of capacitation, or the maturation period of sperm. Today, more than one million babies have been born in America using IVF, largely due to progress that Chang made in the field.
Chang and Pincus’ work at the Worcester Foundation attracted many bright young minds in the world of biology. With the expertise and guidance of Chang and Pincus, the foundation became a sort of “international crossroads” [1] in reproductive biology, giving many young scientists the opportunities to go on to have long, distinguished careers.
As an individual mentor, Chang was a humble man – Ryuzo Yanagimachi, who worked under him at the Worcester Society, recalls one incident in which Chang crossed out his name on the author line of a paper that he had advised Yanagimachi on before it was set to be published, giving his student the credit he needed. Even today, the foundation helps young scientists; now under the umbrella of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the building is used as the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society.
Personal Life
Besides his work in the field of reproductive biology, Chang was a loving father and husband. Married to Isabelle Chang, who worked in the Shrewsbury School system for 17 years, the pair had three children. Still, Chang’s dedication to his work in the laboratory sometimes came at the cost of quality time with his family – Isabelle Chang recalls one anecdote in which Chang had to run out in the middle of a conversation to finish a time-sensitive experiment, with no time to even explain where he was going. Working seven days a week and some weekends, Chang’s workaholism is well documented.
Chang's Legacy
Min Chueh Chang was renowned as a prolific scientist, not only due to his work on the pill, but because of the wider shadow he cast over the field of reproductive biology as a whole. His work ethic was unrivaled, publishing nearly 350 studies throughout his career. This commitment did not go unrecognized – Chang received numerous accolades, including the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Ortho Medal and Award by the American Fertility Society, the Hartman Award by the Society for the Study of Fertility, and the Wippman Scientific Research Award for the Study of Fertility. He was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990, and is commemorated in the organization’s Hall of Fame.
Throughout his life, Chang was known by colleagues as a genuinely modest and humble man, with a quick wit and an infectious laugh. According to his peers, he looked up to others he met, despite being an internationally celebrated biologist. Moreover, his rise to prominence as a Chinese scientist amidst a period of intense xenophobia in American history illustrates his extraordinary perseverance and dedication. All in all, his legacy is felt through the countless lives that he has impacted, and it continues to inspire scientists today.
National Academy of Sciences
Impact of 'The Pill'
The invention of the oral contraceptive pill was a turning point in the history of gender equality in the United States and across the world. Before the invention of the pill, women were unable to truly choose between careers and their sexual freedom. With the inability to guarantee whether or not intercourse will lead to pregnancy – for every 100 sexually active women using condoms over the course of a year, 18 will become pregnant – many women were forced to abstain from sex and relationships as a whole in order to advance their careers, or to sacrifice career progress in order to care for children. Besides reducing the risk of pregnancy to 6% with normal use and 0.3% with perfect use, the pill gave women the ability to decide themselves whether to use birth control, with no negotiation or uncertainty. Just five years after its introduction, half of married women on birth control used the pill; by the 1970s, it was overwhelmingly the most popular form of contraception for young women.
The introduction of the pill, and its subsequent widespread use, had far-reaching impacts into American society. Most notably, women were able to pursue more varied careers – in 1970, new medical degrees, law degrees, and MBAs were held by over 90% men, but by 1980, women made up closer to a third of those degrees. This corresponded to wider economic equality in America – the gender wage gap decreased dramatically, women were able to step outside traditional roles of motherhood, and stronger laws against sex discrimination in the workplace were enacted.
Besides its equalizing economic effects, though, the pill also sparked a cultural shift in America. Attitudes towards sex, especially with regards to premarital sex and exploration of sexuality, became more liberal. Debates in America also began over whose responsibility was birth control – now that women could use a safer method of birth control, many argued that they were responsible for using it. Still others saw the pill as more of a burden than a privilege, especially given the fact that the pharmaceutical industry was and remains dominated by men. Despite these concerns, though, the pill is nonetheless overwhelmingly seen as a hugely positive contribution to American society. Through his work on the contraceptive pill, Min Chueh Chang helped bring about this change in America and across the globe.
Content researched and written by William R. Prince.
Images from the Biographical Memoir of Min Chueh Chang (National Academy of Science) Retrieved 2019.