Elizabeth Painter (later Elizabeth Painter Marcus) was an associate biologist in the Health Division at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory.
The recipient of a doctorate in physiology from the University of Maryland, Painter taught physiology and chemistry at Maryland and at Columbia University. In 1943, she joined the Manhattan Project as a research associate and inhalation toxicologist. She studied the effects of fission products on laboratory animals and conducted experiments on the effects of ionizing radiation on animals.
After the war, Painter was a professor of physiology, nutrition, and chemistry at the University of Chicago Medical School.