Science Blog
31 Incredible Women in the History of Science Who’ve Changed the World
Apr
Inspiring Female Scientists
Dr. Helen Taussig
Dr. Helen Taussig was a cardiologist who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. She also developed a concept for a procedure called Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt, which extended the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot/Blue baby syndrome. She was the first woman to become the president of the American Heart Association. Dr. Taussig is also recognized for her work in banning thalidomide, a drug that caused the birth defect crisis in Europe. She was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Caroline Hersche
Caroline Herschel was a pioneering astronomer credited as the first woman to discover a comet. Caroline Herschel was the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist. In addition to the discovery of a comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet that bears her name, she spotted 7 other comets.
Dr. Dian Fossey
Dr. Dian Fossey, a primatologist who transformed the way we see gorillas. Through her work in Rwanda, Dr. Fossey actively supported conservation efforts, strongly opposed poaching and tourism in wildlife habitats. She demolished the myth that ‘gorillas are violent and kill a human on sight. Dr. Fossey gave her life to save gorillas as she died at the age of 53 years under mysterious circumstances, speculated to be related to her conservation efforts. A movie about her life, work, and death: ‘Gorillas in the Mist’.
Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini
Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of nerve growth factor. Dr. Levi-Montalcini also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life. She died at the age of 103 years, thereby becoming the longest-living Nobel Laureate.
Dr. Nettie Stevens
Dr. Nettie Stevens, a geneticist credited with the discovery of sex chromosomes.In 1905, soon after the rediscovery of Mendel’s paper on genetics in 1900, she observed that male mealworms produced two kinds of sperm, one with a large chromosome and one with a small chromosome. When the sperm with the large chromosome fertilized eggs, they produced female offspring, and when the sperm with the small chromosome fertilized eggs, they produced male offspring.
Ellen Swallow Richards
Ellen Swallow Richards, a chemist, and sanitary and industrial engineer. Her work led to the first state water-quality standards in the nation and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant in Massachusetts. Ellen Richards was the first woman in the U.S. accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry. Ellen Richards’ work also led to the establishment of the field of home economics. She was the first to apply chemistry to the study of nutrition.
Dr. Margaret Washburn
Dr. Margaret Washburn, one of the first few women to enter the field of psychology in the U.S. Dr. Washburn is well known for her contribution to the study of consciousness and the examination of mental processes in both animals and humans. Dr. Washburn was the first woman in the U.S. to receive a Ph.D. in Psychology and to establish a psychology laboratory. She was a pioneer in the fight for equal educational opportunities for women.
Dr. Margaret Maltby
Dr. Margaret Maltby, a physicist well known for the measurement of high electrolytic resistances and conductivity of very dilute solutions. Dr. Maltby was a strong advocate for securing opportunities for capable women in graduate and postdoctoral programs.
Alexandra Smirnoff
Alexandra Smirnoff, scientist, pomologist, and writer from Finland. She wrote the first scientific exposition on apples that laid the ground and greatly influenced pomology in Finland and Sweden. If you’re like us and don’t know what pomology is, here you go: pomum (fruit) + -logy is a branch of botany that studies and cultivates fruit
Dr. Vera Yevstafievna Popova
Dr. Vera Yevstafievna Popova, a chemist. She was one of the first female chemists in Russia and the first Russian female author of a chemistry textbook. Dr. Popova did research on dibenzyl ketone. In addition to chemistry, she also enjoyed entomology and writing and published a description of work with bees and her own short stories! Tragically, Dr. Popova died at the young age of 28 as a result of an explosion in her laboratory in which H-C≡P (methylidynephosphane) was being synthesized.
Ellen Churchill Semple
Ellen Churchill Semple, a geographer. She is well known for her work indicating that the physical environment determines human history and culture. She went to Germany to seek out and work with geographer Friedrich Ratzel. As a woman, she was prohibited from matriculating, and despite publishing several academic papers with Friedrich Ratze, she was never conferred a degree. Fighting against all the odds, she had a successful career. She contributed significantly to the early development of the discipline of geography in the United States. She was the founding member and the first female President of the Association of American Geographers (AAG).
Dr. Marietta Blau
A physicist, Dr. Marietta Blau. Her nuclear emulsions significantly advanced the field of particle physics in her time. Dr. Blau was the first physicist to show that proton tracks could be separated from alpha-particle tracks in emulsion. Her contributions led to the establishment of a method to accurately study reactions caused by cosmic ray events.
Alice Evans
Alice Evans, a microbiologist who investigated bacteriology in milk and cheese. Alice Evans showed that drinking unpasteurized milk could transmit the bacterium, Bacillus abortus, the causative agent of Brucellosis (Malta fever), from domestic farm animals to humans. She passionately advocated for the pasteurization of milk.
Lin Lanying
Lin Lanying, known as the “mother of aerospace materials” and the “mother of semiconductor materials” in China. Lin Lanying produced China’s first germanium and silicon mono-crystals and pioneered new techniques in semiconductor development.
Dr. Helen Megaw
Dr. Helen Megaw, a pioneering crystallographer. She is well known for her work in determining the structures of ice crystals and perovskite (CaTiO3) crystals. Interesting facts: among the things named after Dr. Helen Megaw, is the Megaw Island in the Southern Ocean, and Megawite (CaSnO3), a perovskite-group mineral!
Dr. Edith Humphrey
Dr. Edith Humphrey – an inorganic chemist who carried out pioneering work in co-ordination chemistry. A sample of the original crystals synthesized by Dr. Humphrey for her Ph.D. is preserved and is on display at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Annie Maunder
Annie Maunder, a solar astronomer. She contributed to mapping the positions of sunspots from data that had been collected over a number of solar cycles. She is remembered for the ‘butterfly diagram’ – the pattern of the positions of sunspots that looked like butterfly wings.
Sophie Germain
Sophie Germain, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. She is famous for her work as one of the pioneers of elasticity theory and number theory. Sophie Germain assumed a man’s identity (Monsieur Antoine-August LeBlanc) in order to pursue her passion for mathematics research.
Rajeshwari Chatterjee
Rajeshwari Chatterjee, the 1st woman engineer from Karnataka, India, famous for her pioneering work on microwave engineering.
Elizabeth Britton
Elizabeth Britton, a botanist, and bryologist. She helped organize the creation of the New York Botanical Garden. Elizabeth Britton’s research on lichens and mosses laid the foundation for conservation work in the field.
Mary Treat
Mary Treat, a naturalist. She made significant contributions to the fields of entomology and botany. She was a correspondent with Charles Darwin. Several species of plants and animals were named after her, including Zephyranthes treatae (renamed), Aphaenogaster treatae.
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson, a marine biologist, author, and conservationist, credited as the catalyst for the modern environmental movement.
Henrietta Leavitt
Henrietta Leavitt, an astronomer. She discovered the relationship between the period and the luminosity of the Cepheids, and this discovery has allowed scientists to measure the distance to remote galaxies.
Melitta Bentz
Melitta Bentz, an entrepreneur who invented and patented the paper coffee filter brewing system. Melitta Bentz invented the paper coffee filter as a housewife. She is the perfect example to demonstrate that academia, Ph.D., and labs aren’t the only ways to innovate and change the world! At the time when women didn’t have the right to vote – including in the US, Canada, Germany – she founded the namesake company Melitta and employed her husband and sons as the employees of her new company!
Dr. Lise Meitner
A Nuclear physicist Dr. Lise Meitner. She discovered and explained nuclear fission process. She refused to work on the Manhattan Project. Her epitaph on her gravestone, written by her nephew reads, “Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity”. Although the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the discovery of nuclear fission, Dr. Lise Meitner was recognized as the recipient of this prize.
Anne McLaren
a Developmental biologist Anne McLaren. She pioneered techniques that led to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an astrophysicist. She discovered pulsars, providing the first direct evidence for the existence of rapidly spinning neutron stars. Her contributions are credited with “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century”. The 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to discovery of pulsars, but Dr. Bell Burnell was not recognized as one of the recipients. This is often discussed as one of the infamous examples of the Nobel Prize snubbing women in the sciences.
Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal
Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal, a molecular biologist and virologist famous for her groundbreaking work on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Not only she is a great scientist, but also an science entrepreneur Executive VP of Research & CSO – iTherX Pharmaceuticals. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
Emmy Noether
Emmy Noether, a great mathematician immortalized through her Noether’s theorem. Her critical work advanced the fields of algebra and physics. She was described by Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Jean Dieudonné, Hermann Weyl and Norbert Wiener as **the most important woman in the history of mathematics**. Interesting fact: The crater Nöther on the far side of the Moon is named after her.
Mary Anning
A paleontologist from the early 1800s, Mary Anning. She is often recognized as “the greatest fossilist the world ever knew”. She made important contributions to the discovery of the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus and discovered the first plesiosaur.
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, in Physics, and with her later win, in Chemistry, she became the first person to claim Nobel honors twice.” Her efforts led to the discovery of polonium and radium, and she championed the development of X-rays.
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