It was the 1920=s and, according to the times, a woman=s place was in the home. But lucky for the Pennington Center, Margaret C. Moore knew her place was in the chemistry lab.

Moore=s calling went a step beyond the world of chemicals. As the computer age dawned, Moore pioneered the Extended Table of Nutrient Values, a data base which now plays a pivotal role in the Pennington Center=s clinical and food science research. These days, although 95 years old, she still works closely with the Pennington Center staff in managing and updating the data base.

Just as the ETNV represented the cutting edge of science at the time it was developed, Moore was blazing new territory for women when she embarked on her career in chemistry and nutrition.

Few women went to college in those days, but Moore was hardly discouraged. AI wanted to study chemistry. Harvard, which was the best school in the country, wouldn=t accept women. But the next best, University of Chicago would. So I went there.@

After graduation, Margaret went to work for the American Medical Association and, later, the Louisiana Department of Health. She became interested in nutritions role in health following one of the great floods which ravaged South Louisiana during the early part of the century.

"I went on the health train to see people, how they were and how they lived. I was interested in what people ate. People ate poorly and I recognized that," she says. You can influence your own health through nutrition-- that I know.

As her interest intensified, Moore and her colleagues collected and analyzed nutrition tables distributed by the USDA for use in their research. By 1960, Moore and nutritionist Mary Helen Goodloe of Georgia developed the ETNV to calculate the nutritional content of recipes and foods.

Even after retiring from the Department of Health in 1964, Moore singlehandedly maintained the data base from her New Orleans French Quarter apartment. But realizing she could not continue her task forever, Moore began searching for a qualified successor with a working knowledge of chemistry.

Meanwhile at LSU, Dr. Catherine Champagne, a registered dietitian and analytical chemist, was developing a keen interest in the ETNV after utilizing the data base in her doctoral dissertation. As a result, Moore is now confident the data base rests in good hands.

The ETNV is now licensed to Louisiana State University, and the Pennington Center is responsible for housing, maintaining and enhancing it, according to Pennington Center Grants Administrator Pat Marquette.

Says Champagne who, in Moore=s honor, keeps a picture of the data base=s co-founder hanging above her desk, AWe manage it, we maintain it, and we decide what projects it will be used forCall the things Margaret used to do and wants to see continued.@

Note: Reprinted from AInside Pennington,@ the official newsletter of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (Volume 3, Issue 3, May/June 1992). The ETNV was renamed Moore=s Extended Nutrient (MENu) Database following the official donation of Dr. Margaret C. Moore to the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation in October 1992. The original ETNV continues to exist and be updated as a mainframe resource at LSU Medical Center in New Orleans. MENu is PC-based and is housed and maintained at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA. For additional information on the life and contributions of Margaret Moore, look for the following article: Frank, Gail C., Margaret Carrington MooreCHer Contribution to Nutrition Education, Journal of Nutrition Education, Volume 15, Number 2, pages 42-44, 1983.