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Portrait of Gertrude B. Elion

Gertrude B. Elion

Gertrude B. Elion (born January 23, 1918, New York City, United States; died 1999), was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. Elion's honours include Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, National Inventors Hall of Fame and National Women's Hall of Fame.

Gertrude B. Elion’s zodiac sign was Aquarius, Chinese zodiac was Fire Snake, with Life Path 7 in numerology.

Your match with Gertrude

Free, no account, stays on this device. Add a birth time later.

Gertrude B. Elion’s AsterNym identity

The Gilded Lightkeeper

Metal represents precision. Metal-led charts are associated with standards, boundaries, discernment and the ability to remove what is unnecessary. Life Path 7 represents inquiry: study, solitude and the need to understand what others may simply accept.

Metal Day Master (BaZi) × fixed Sun × Life Path 7, on the intuitive plane.

How common is the name Gertrude in the U.S.?

#6632

US rank in 2025

~177,668

Americans share it since 1880

1917

its peak year

In 1918, 6,264 American girls and 14 boys were registered Gertrude — 39th among girls and 2,204th among boys on the SSA's list that year.

US Social Security Administration public records

What Gertrude’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

11

Expression · sensing what is coming

6

Soul Urge · being needed

5

Personality · restless, adaptable

The name opens on G (7) and closes on E (5). The value it repeats most is 5, which numerology reads as movement.

Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again

Gertrude’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

7 · 2 · 8 · 9

Lucky colours

Red & Orange

Lucky day

Saturday

Direction

↓ South

Season

summer

Stones

Garnet, Blue Sapphire, Carnelian

Flower constellation

🌺 Carnation · 🤍 Camellia · 🌸 Hibiscus

Crimson · Ivory · Scarlet

Eight Mansions · Kua number

Kua 8, trigram Gen 艮, West group. Best direction Southwest, worst South.

A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1917, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as female. Work out your own →

The record

What sets Gertrude apart

The Garvan-Olin Medal came in 1968, when Gertrude B. Elion was 50.

The schooling ran through Walton High School and Hunter College.

On Wikipedia the categories read Lemelson-MIT Prize, American women pharmacologists and Jewish women scientists.

Hideki Yukawa (1907) and Doutzen Kroes (1985) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.

Educated at
Walton High School, Hunter College and Jamaica High School
Awards
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1988), National Medal of Science (1991) and Lemelson-MIT Prize (1997)
Citizenship
United States
Languages
English
Wikipedia editions
87

What the chart says

Gertrude, according to the stars

Core essence

Gertrude is two steps to the left of where you expected. The core of Gertrude is a mind that runs on its own current, cares about the whole picture, and cannot pretend to care about the rules for their own sake. They are friend to everyone and fully known by few, and they make the people around them braver about being odd.

The vibe

Underneath, Gertrude processes by talking. The Moon in Gemini means a feeling is not real until it has been said out loud, ideally to two people, ideally with a joke attached. What Gertrude needs to feel safe is someone who will listen to the whole thought, including the three tangents, without rushing them to a point.

How Gertrude wants to be loved

Gertrude wants to be loved as a friend first, and then as everything. Venus in Aquarius needs freedom, conversation and a partner who finds their strangeness delightful. Rules and jealousy make them cold; acceptance makes them devoted. Let Gertrude be fully themselves and they will never want to be anywhere else.

How Gertrude creates

How Gertrude makes things happen: they cut to it. A Yang Metal day master is the sword, decisive, principled, allergic to nonsense. Gertrude creates by clarifying, by deciding, by being the one who says what the thing actually is. Sharp with themselves first. The work is remembering that not every problem needs a blade.

Instinct

Instinct: Gertrude is wise and watchful, a Snake year, and their gut reaction is to observe before moving. Elegant, intuitive, private, and usually right about people long before saying so. The Fire year turns the volume up: warmer, bolder, more expressive, harder to overlook.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 7 is the seeker. Gertrude is here to understand, to go deep rather than wide, to keep a private inner world that most people never see. Thoughtful, intuitive, happiest with time alone, and learning to let the right people in.

Triggers

Triggers: unfairness, and being forced to pick a side. Mars in Libra hates open conflict and will negotiate for hours to avoid it, then dig in absolutely when a principle is at stake. Gertrude fights for balance. The lesson is that sometimes the fair thing is to just say no.

Computed from Gertrude's birth date. Working below.

Where Gertrude sits

Six lines

Gertrude’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.

Intimate circleWide network
Gertrude

You likely balance a tight inner circle with a wider orbit you dip into.

DeliberateSpontaneous
Gertrude

You likely think things through before you act. Haste rarely feels safe.

PrivateExpressive
Gertrude

You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Gertrude

You likely handle some friction right away and let smaller things settle.

PracticalVisionary
Gertrude

You may be drawn to big possibilities. The practical follows after the vision.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Gertrude

You likely warm up at a pace that depends on the person and moment.

Tap each line where you sit.

All twelve of yours, from your birth date →

✦ A real star from their birth night

Dedicate a star to Gertrude B. Elion

Three stars chosen from the real sky above New York City on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.

Gertrude’s birth-night reference starCapellagolden yellow · AurigaCapella, in Auriga. A golden yellow star, 84.8° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Capella →The warmest lightProcyonyellow-white · Canis MinorProcyon, in Canis Minor. A yellow-white star, 42.7° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the warmest-toned bright star up that night.Dedicate Procyon →

A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.

The sky over New York City that night

Computed for 40.71°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at New York City was Capella, in Auriga, 84.8° up.

Of the 107 catalog stars above the horizon, Sirius was the brightest.

New York City sits at 40.7°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.

The trade is at the other end of the sky: nothing south of −49.3° declination ever rises from here, which puts Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman permanently out of view.

The Moon, 91% lit at waxing gibbous, was still up; the Sun sat 44° below the horizon.

The name and the places

Born in
New York City, United States

The death is recorded at Chapel Hill, Orange County in 1999.

No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for Gertrude B. Elion: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.

How unusual Gertrude's chart is

Chart pattern score

74 / 100 · Rare

3-planet stellium in Aquarius · Grand trine · T-square onto Mars

An AsterNym index built from stelliums, yods, grand crosses and chart shape. It is not a population percentile, and a high score is not a better chart. Without a birth time the houses are left out of it.

Score your own chart →

Gertrude B. Elion at a glance

Aquarius Sun

Cares about everyone, needs space.

Gertrude B. Elion's Sun was in Aquarius for the whole of January 23, 1918, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Aquarius means →

Fire Snake

Says less than it knows.

Gertrude B. Elion was born on January 23, 1918, which falls in a Fire Snake year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Snake means →

Life Path 7

Needs the quiet to work.

Gertrude B. Elion's birth date, January 23, 1918, reduces to Life Path 7 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 7 means →

What stands out in Gertrude’s chart

Gertrude’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 17° to 29° Gemini depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Sun flows with Mars · Trine, 0.6° orbMars flows with Jupiter · Trine, 0.8° orbMoon flows with Uranus · Trine, 0.9° orbSun flows with Jupiter · Trine, 1.4° orbMars grinds against Pluto · Square, 1.6° orbSun faces off with Neptune · Opposition, 2.9° orbVenus grinds against Jupiter · Square, 3.2° orbMars opens doors for Neptune · Sextile, 3.5° orbSun in Aquarius · 2°54′☉2°Moon in Gemini · 23°27′☽23°Mercury in Capricorn · 8°21′☿8°Venus in Aquarius · 28°16′ · retrograde♀℞28°Mars in Libra · 2°19′♂2°Jupiter in Gemini · 1°29′ · retrograde♃℞1°Saturn in Leo · 11°45′ · retrograde♄℞11°Uranus in Aquarius · 22°32′♅22°Neptune in Leo · 5°48′ · retrograde♆℞5°Pluto in Cancer · 3°57′ · retrograde♇℞3°

No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.

Tap a planet, a sign, a house, an aspect line or an element to see what it means and what sits in it.
Lines drawn
Conjunction 0°
Sextile 60°
Square 90°
Trine 120°
Opposition 180°

Placements

Tap one to light it on the wheel.

The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow

Aspects across every possible birth time

  • stableSuntrineMars0.1° to 1.0° orb

    Gertrude’s core identity flows straight into their drive.

  • stableMarstrineJupiter0.8° to 0.9° orb

    Gertrude’s drive flows straight into their growth. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.

  • stableSuntrineJupiter0.9° to 1.9° orb

    Gertrude’s core identity flows straight into their growth.

  • stableMarssquarePluto1.6° to 1.7° orb

  • stableSunoppositionNeptune2.4° to 3.4° orb

  • stableVenussquareJupiter3.1° to 3.3° orb

  • stableMarssextileNeptune3.4° to 3.6° orb

  • stableMercuryoppositionPluto4.0° to 4.9° orb

  • stableJupitersextileNeptune4.3° orb

  • stableVenusconjunctionUranus5.6° to 5.8° orb

  • stableVenustrinePluto5.6° to 5.7° orb

  • stableMercurysquareMars5.7° to 6.4° orb

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire2 of 10
  • Earth1 of 10
  • Air6 of 10
  • Water1 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal3 of 10
  • Fixed5 of 10
  • Mutable2 of 10

Counted across the ten planets by sign: Air leads this chart.

Gertrude’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ ChironPisces 26°25′ (moves 0.04° over the day)

    centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it

  • ⚳ CeresSagittarius 16°39′ (moves 0.38° over the day)

    dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured

  • ♡ ErosAquarius 21°28′ (moves 0.61° over the day)

    near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire

  • ⚕ HygieaAquarius 28°43′ (moves 0.36° over the day)

    main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithVirgo 19°17′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Hygiea conjunction Venus 0.4°
  • Eros conjunction Uranus 1.1°
  • Hygiea square Jupiter 2.8°

Gertrude’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ♅ Uranus8 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Aquarius; in its own sign, Aquarius; disposes Sun, Venus; 1 major aspect

  2. 2. ☉ Sun5 pts

    disposes Saturn, Neptune; 3 major aspects

  3. 3. ♂ Mars5 pts

    5 major aspects

Configurations in Gertrude’s chart

  • stellium, the shape it makesStellium in Aquarius · Sun, Venus, UranusThree or more planets in one sign (four, or three with a luminary, by AsterNym's count): a concentration astrologers read as that sign's themes dominating the chart.
  • kite, the shape it makesKite · Sun, Mars, Jupiter, NeptuneA grand trine with a fourth planet opposing one corner and sextile the other two: the trine's ease with an outlet.
  • t square, the shape it makesT-square onto Mars · Mercury, Pluto, MarsAn opposition with a third planet squaring both ends. Read as a driving tension that resolves through the apex planet.

Minor aspects

semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.

  • Mercury semi-square Uranus 0.8°
  • Mercury biquintile Jupiter 0.9°
  • Sun quincunx Pluto 1.0°
  • Neptune semi-sextile Pluto 1.9°

More people like Gertrude

Other pharmacists

Born in United States

More charts like Gertrude’s

Fellow Aquarius suns

All about Aquarius →

Born in Snake years

Year of the Snake →

Also born on January 23

Fellow Yang Metal day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Aquarius Snake charts

  • Michael BloombergAmerican businessman and politician; 108th Mayor of New York City
  • Chris RockAmerican comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer, and director
  • Amal ClooneyLebanese-British-French barrister and human right activist
  • TylaSouth African singer-songwriter

Other Gilded Lightkeepers

The Gilded Lightkeeper explained →

Famous people with Life Path 7

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: Your animal plus your element: the 60-year cycle · Flying Star feng shui: the one that changes with time

Gertrude’s cards

Computed from January 23, 1918. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

The Tower

AsterNym identity card

The Gilded Lightkeeper

Western zodiac

Aquarius

Chinese zodiac

Snake 巳

Life Path

7 · Seeker

♄ Ruled by Saturn

Lead Pb

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yang Metal.

Year

丁

yin Fire

巳

Snake

Fire

roots & early life

Month

癸

yin Water

丑

Ox

Earth

work & drive

Day

day master

庚

yang Metal

午

Horse

Fire

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Gertrude’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q35703 (CC0), as do the occupations, works and awards above. With no documented birth time this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. The banner above lists what that leaves out. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.

Tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses, modern rulers. Aspects on the western_v1 orb policy; minor ones at 1.5° to 2.5°, skipped where a major already holds. Minor bodies from JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, Lilith as mean apogee. Dominance is an AsterNym score — rulerships, dispositors, aspect count — so other methods can name a different leader.

Portrait by GlaxoSmithKline plc, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Gertrude B. Elion at Wikipedia.

Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.

Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Gertrude B. Elion.

Quick answers about Gertrude B. Elion’s chart

What zodiac sign was Gertrude B. Elion?
Gertrude B. Elion was an Aquarius: born January 23, 1918, which puts the Sun in Aquarius for the whole of that day.
What was Gertrude B. Elion's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Snake, with the Fire element, from the Chinese lunar year of the January 23, 1918 birth.
What was Gertrude B. Elion's Life Path number?
Life Path 7, calculated in numerology.
What was Gertrude B. Elion's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Pisces at 26°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where was Gertrude B. Elion's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Virgo at 19°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What was Gertrude B. Elion's dominant planet?
Uranus, on AsterNym's dominance score (8 points: rules the Sun sign, Aquarius; in its own sign, Aquarius; disposes Sun, Venus; 1 major aspect). Sun is second and Mars third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

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