Women
Kathryn M. Edwards
⚕️ Public Health
- has led trials for nearly every infectious disease for which an effective vaccine exists
- has published more than 650 research publications
- worked at Vanderbilt university Medical Center 1980-2022
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Grinnell College Chemistry 1967; University of Iowa Pharmacology 1969; University of Iowa Medical School MD 1973
Gertrude Belle Elion
🔬 Biochemistry
🔍 Pharmacology
- 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings & Sir James Black
- 1st female inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
- Her work in understanding the target of a drug instead of using trial-and-error led to the development of numerous new drugs
- Her family lost everything in the 1929 Wall Street Crash
- Her grandfather died of cancer when she was 15 & his death inspired her to pursue a career in science & medicine
- Initially unable to find a job in a science field, she worked as a secretary, food quality supervisor at an A&P market, & as a high school teacher
- Held 96 patents
Born: 1918
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BS Chemistry 1937; New York University MS Chemistry 1941
Dale Brown Emeagwali
🔬 Microbiology
- 1986, she & colleagues proved S. parvulus, a strain of Streptomycetes, synthesized isozymes of kynurenine formamidase, leading to bacteria being thought of as more complex organisms than originally thought
- She & her colleagues revealed ras oncogene activity can be subdued via antisense methodology, providing an insight in how cancer can be combated
- While at the University of Minnesota, she & husband Philip spearheaded the annual African-American Science Day designed to provide role models for African-American children
Born: 1954
Country: USA
Education: Coppin State College BS Science 1976; Georgetown University School of Medicine PhD Microbiology 1981; Postdoc Fellow NIH 1981-1984; Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences 1985-86
Patricia L. Eng
⚛️ Nuclear Physics
- after retiring from NRC, co-authored two highly acclaimed books: “Navigating the Minefield: A Practical KM Companion,” published by the American Society for Quality in 2017; and “The KM Cookbook: stories and strategies for organizations exploring KM Standard ISO 30401” published in 2019
- is featured in two videos and three books on Women in Engineering
- After retiring from the NRC (2013), took some time to become a Master Gardener and catch up on her reading
Born: Unknown
Country: Unknown
Education: University of Illinois BS Nuclear Engineering/Mechanical Engineering 1976; Virginia Tech MS Science & Technology Policy 2013
Anna Louise Cherrie Epps
🔬 Microbiology
- none
Born: 1930
Country: USA
Education: Howard University BS Zoology 1951; Loyola University, New Orleans MS Microbiology; Howard University College of Medicine PhD Zoology 1966
Tatiana L. Erukhimova
⚛️ Physics
📚 Educator
- was featured on The Jennifer Hudson Show and Good Morning America
- uses Tik Tok as a platform to teach physics experiments & make them fun
- known for involving undergraduate and graduate students in physics education research
- uses a range of everyday objects in her experiments, from ping-pong balls and toilet paper to marshmallows, bicycle wheels and hair dryers
- joined the faculty at Texas A & M 2001
- 2022 was awarded the Marsha L. ('69) & Ralph F. Shilling ('68) Chair for Physics Outreach at Texas A & M
- her experiments have radically increased the following of Texas A & M Physics & Astronomy's social media accounts with each new video she makes averaging over a million views
- her video demonstrating inertia using an egg, toilet paper tube, paper plate & glass of water has been viewed 7.8 million times
- her favorite audience to teach is 2nd graders
Born: Unknown
Country: Russia
Education: N.I.Lobachevsky State University of Nizhy Novogorod MS Physics 1987; Russian Academy of Sciences PhD Physics 1999
Deborah Estrin
💻 Computer Science
- was a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California between 1986 and 2001, and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) between 2001 and 2013, where she was the founding director of the NSF-funded Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS)
- Open mHealth, created open data sharing standards and tools that allow developers of health applications to store, process, and visualize data
- her work has shown how the data streaming from networks of such devices as smartphones and cameras can enrich our understanding and management of complex problems, from personal and public health to traffic patterns and civic engagement
- spearheaded a groundbreaking internship program for Los Angeles high school students in mobile technologies and data
Born: 1959
Country: USA
Education: UC Berkeley BS Electrical Engineering Computer Science (EECS) 1980; MIT MS 1982 & PhD 1985 both EECS
Alice Catherine Evans
🔬 Microbiology
- Her discovery of the organisms that cause undulant fever led to laws mandating the pasteurization of milk
- 1st female scientist to hold a permanent position as a USDA bacteriologist
- Learned German in order to read research papers in their original language
- 1st female president of the Society of American Bacteriologists
- Attended a 0ne-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania
- She & her brother Morgan survived scarlet fever as children
- Played on a woman's basketball team & at one game a doctor refused to treat her dislocated finger because she had participated in an unladylike sport
- Taught for 4 years but hated it
- Took classes at Cornell University for her BS & worked as a housekeeper & clerical assistant; her nickname was "The Grind"
- 1st female recipient of a bacteriology scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her MS
Born: 1881
Country: USA
Education: Susquehanna Collegiate Institute; Cornell University BS Bacteriology 1909; University of Wisconsin-Madison MS 1910
Brittney Katherine Exline
💻 Computer Science
🔍 anthropology
⚛️ Engineering
Born: 1992
Country: USA
Education: University of Pennsylvania BS&E Computer Science 2011; Georgia Institute of Technology MS Computer Science 2022; Harvard University Anthropology
Cassandra G. Extavour
🔬 Evolutionary Biology
🔍 Genetics
Born: Unknown
Country: Canada
Education: University of Toronto BSc Molecular Genetics & Molecular Biology with major in Mathematics 1995; Autonomous University of Madrid PhD 2000 evolutionary Biology; Genetics, Harvard University; Handel & Haydn Society
Sandra Moore Faber
⚛️ Astrophysics
- With George Blumenthal, Joel Primack, & Martin Rees was an early pioneer in developing a model of galaxy formation based on cold dark matter
- 1st female to join the Lick Observatory
- Instrumental in developing the Keck telescopes in Hawaii (1985); advocated for the use of large optical telescopes all over the world
- Co-discoverer of Faber-Jackson relation with Robert Jackson; it's a link between the velocity dispersion in elliptical galaxies & their luminosities
- Established a way to estimate the distance to any galaxy
Born: 1944
Country: USA
Education: Swarthmore College BA Physics 1966; Harvard University PhD Astronomy 1972
Etta Zuber Falconer
📊 Mathematics
📚 Educator
- none
Born: 1933
Country: USA
Education: Fisk University BS Mathematics 1953; University of Wisconsin-Madison MS Mathematics 1954; Emory University PhD Mathematics 1969; Atlanta University MS Computer Science 1982
Tracy Ann Fanara
⚛️ Environmental Engineer
🔬 Research Scientist
- tests environmental myths to justify action or to alleviate public misconceptions, then communicates results to the public through through media interviews, public seminars, citizen science programs, and scientific investigative docu-reality videos
- played lacrosse, soccer, ice hockey, softball and just about any other sport you can think of, loves animals (including her staffordshire terrier, Bambo), builds remote control cars, is an expert outdoors-woman
- frequently wears baseball hats backwards and wears all-black or camoflauge clothes
- her website is InspectorPlanet.com
- was featured in Marvel’s Unstoppable Wasp which led to her co-produced comic series, Seekers of Science
- has been a guest host on the Discovery Channel show “Myth-Busters”
- leads Mission Tampa Bay, a DoD funded STEM camp for Middle and High school girls, and works with educators and industry to build K-12 curriculum throughout the US
- has a comic book about two women who work with the community and other experts to solve problems and save the world & 100% of proceeds go to giving copies to kids in underserved communities & can be found at seekersofscience.com
- was born with a condition called blue baby syndrome—also known as infant methemoglobinemia
- grew up in Buffalo NY in the Love Canal neighborhood-an area effected by toxic waste dumping by major industries
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: University of Florida BS, ME & PhD (2015) all in Environmental/Civil Engineering
Fannie Merritt Farmer
🔬 Food Sciences
- Her publisher (Little, Brown & Co) didn't expect her cookbook to do well & only issued 3,000 copies printed at Farmer's expense
- the cookbook was referred to as "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook" and it is still available in print over 100 years later
- the cookbook provided scientific explanations of the chemical processes that occur in food during cooking, and helped to standardize the system of measurements used in cooking in the USA
- suffered a paralytic stroke at age 16 while in high school & couldn't walk for a few years
- began cooking & serving her food at her mother's boarding house
- when she regained the use of her legs (with a pronounced limp she had for the remainder of her life) she worked as a domestic for the Shaw family & Mrs. shaw & her parents encouraged her to go to cooking school
- enrolled at the Boston cooking School started by Mrs. Lincoln at age 30 & remained at the school after graduating as the assistant directed & was promoted to principal in 1891
- lectured on convalescent diet & nutrition to doctors & nurses at harvard Medical School
- used a wheelchair for the last 7 years of her life after another stroke left her legs completely paralyzed
- gave her last lecture 10 days before she died after another stroke
- wrote 11 books with recipes, diet & nutrition information
- the cooking school she opened in 1902 closed in 1944
- was one time known as "the mother of level measurements"
- her family licensed the use of her name as long as they agreed to spell her 1st name "Fanny" to a Chicago candy company & they sold chocolates & other confections under the name "Fanny Farmer"
Born: 1857
Country: USA
Education: Boston Cooking School 1889
Nina Vsevolod Federoff
🔬 Molecular Biology
- • 1) Nina Vsevolod Federoff
- Originally intended to study music
- Worked on developmental biology & pioneered DNA sequencing, working out the nucleotide sequence of the 1st complete gene
- Raised 3 daughters as a single mother
- Her 1st language was Russian
- Founder & Director of the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences at Penn State University
- Holds 1 patent
Born: 1942
Country: USA
Education: Syracuse University BS Biology & Chemistry 1966; The Rockefeller University PhD Molecular Biology 1972
Marlena Fejzo
⚕️ Medicine
- is the granddaughter of the Austrian composers Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl
- is the chief scientific officer at a new women’s health company, Harmonia Healthcare, which this year in May opened an HG-focused treatment center in New Jersey and plans to expand to New York City
- became interested in studying Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) due to her own experiences with the condition & being told by her doctors that her symptoms were all in her head & a cry for attention
- furthered her research by partnering with 23andMe to have their clients complete a questionnaire with some questions about hyperemesis symptoms & amassing the data that ultimately identified GDF15 as the cause
- is currently investigating the diabetic drug Metformin as a treatment for HG; holds 2 patents
Born: 1968
Country: USA
Education: Brown University BA Applied Math 1989; Harvard University PhD Genetics 1995
Joan Feynman
⚛️ Astrophysics
⚛️ Space Physics
🔍 Climate Change
- elder brother Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist
- was an inquisitive child and exhibited an interest in understanding the natural world from an early age
- mother & grandmother dissuaded her from studying science because they felt the brains of women were "too feeble" to study it
- was encouraged in scientific pursuits by her brother
- during her graduate years took a year off to live with her husband in Guatemala, where they studied the anthropology of the Maya peoples who lived there
- first elected female officer of the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- organized an AGU committee charged with advancing the fair treatment of women within the geophysics community
- 1957 with husband Richard Irwin Hirshberg & Betty J. Meggers wrote an anthropology paper
- later in her career studied climate change & was especially interested in transient solar events & solar cycle variations
- when her brother was 14 he built an electronics lab in his bedroom and hired her as his assistant for pennies a week
- she found sexism pervasive at Syracuse University
- credited a figure attributed to Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin for proving to her that women could indeed have a career doing science
- she once infiltrated a “men only” dining room at a National Science Foundation meeting
Born: 1927
Country: USA
Education: Oberlin College BS Physics 1948; Syracuse University PhD Physics 1958; Columbia University postdoctural studies
Ann K. Finkbeiner
🔬 Science Journalist
- To pass the Finkbeiner test, an article about a female scientist must not mention: that she is a woman, her husband's job, her childcare arrangements, how she nurtures her underlings, how she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field, how she is a role model for other women, how she's the "first woman to ..."
- for 20 years taught and directed a graduate science-writing program at Johns Hopkins University
- often writes about topics in cosmology & astronomy
- taught at & ran The Writing Seminars' graduate program in science writing at Johns Hopkins University 1988-2013
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Johns Hopkins University MA The Writing Seminar
Edith Marie Flanigen
🔬 Chemistry
- Invented molecular sieves or zeolites
- Co-inventor of synthetic emeralds; were used in jewelry for a while & marketed as "Quintessa Collection"
- 1st female recipient of the Perkin Medal
- 42 year career at Union Carbide & UOP
- She & her 2 sisters all studied/majored in chemistry
- Invented or co-invented over 200 different synthetic substances
- Holds 116 patents
Born: 1929
Country: USA
Education: D Youville College BA Chemistry 1950; Syracuse University M.S.Inorganic-Physical Chemistry 1952
Williamina "Mina" Paton Stevens Fleming
🔭 Astronomy
- Astronomer at Harvard University Observatory
- was a single mother
- helped develop a common designation system for stars and cataloged more than ten thousand stars, 59 gaseous nebulae, over 310 variable stars, and 10 novae and other astronomical phenomena
- one of the founding members of the Harvard Computers
- 1878 she & her husband James Orr Fleming emigrated to Boston MA
- after her husband abandoned her & their son she worked as a domestic for Professor Edward Charles Pickering, the director of the Harvard College Observatory who later upon the recommendation of his wife taught her how to analyze stellar spectra & hired her to work at the Harvard College Observatory
- 1898 appointed Curator of Astronomical Photographs at Harvard-the first woman to hold the position
- at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago she openly advocated for other women in the sciences in her talk "A Field for Woman's Work in Astronomy" where she openly promoted hiring female assistants in astronomy
- until 1908 her name was omitted from the discovery of the Horsehead Nebulae in 1888 & it was attributed to Prof. Pickering only
- notable publications include A Photographic Study of Variable Stars (1907), a list of 222 variable stars she had discovered; and Spectra and Photographic Magnitudes of Stars in Standard Regions (1911)
- became a US citizen in 1907
- Commemorated on the Dundee Women's Trail
- Fleming lunar crater was jointly named after her and Alexander Fleming
- asteroid 5747 Williamina is named after her
- discovered 94 of the 107 unusual Wolf-Rayet stars known at the time
- enjoyed cooking and needlework, and often sewed dolls costumed in Scottish Highland dress for her employees
- 1879 returned to Scotland to be with family when her son was born
Born: 1857
Country: Scotland
Education: attended public schools in Dundee until she was 14 & was a student teacher from 14-20 when she married
Sally Jean Floyd
💻 Computer Science
- 1975 was a computer systems engineer at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
- joined the Network Research Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1990
- 1999 joined the International Computer Science Institute, a research organization affiliated with UC Berkeley, as a research scientist
- retired in 2009
- diagnosed with multiple sclerosis2007
- was an advisor to members of the CS Reentry Program, a department project which prepared “older” women and minorities, who had bachelor’s degrees in non-technical fields, for competitive admission to graduate STEM programs
Born: 1950
Country: USA
Education: University of Michigan-1969 attended 1 year before transferring; University of California-Berkeley BA Sociology 1971, MS 1987 & PhD 1989 both in Computer Science; Merritt College 2 year electronics course
Eunice Newton Foote
⚛️ Physics
- 1st scientist to discuss the Greenhouse Effect
- Signer of the Declaration of Sentiments in Seneca Falls & 1 of the editors of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
- Published the 1st scientific paper in a science journal by a female in the field of physics
- Her contributions to science were forgotten for almost a century before being re-discovered by female academics in the 20th century
- Her works pre-dated those of John Tyndall by 3 years; he was previously credited with discovering the Greenhouse Effect
- She was a distant relative of the scientist Sir Isaac Newton
- Was educated at Troy Female Seminary, a pioneering women's prep school
- Designed & built a lab in her own home
- Held 6 patents in her husband's names as women of that time were not allowed to hold patents
Born: 1819
Country: USA
Education: Emma Willard School/Troy Female Seminary; Rensselear School
Rosalind Elsie Franklin
🔬 Physical Chemistry
🔍 X-ray crystallography
- Confirmed Watson-Crick DNA model with Photo 51
- Was never awarded a Nobel Prize because it's not given posthumously & she died at age 38
- Her biographer, Brenda Maddox, called her "The Dark Lady of DNA"
- Was an expert in x-ray diffraction photos
- Discovered B-DNA-a 2nd type of DNA that forms after DNA is exposed to high levels of moisture
- An asteroid roughly between the orbits of Mars & Jupiter is named Rosfranklin in tribute to her
- Helped lay the foundation for the field of structural virology
Born: 1920
Country: Great Britain
Education: Newnham College, Cambridge Natural Sciences Degree 1941; University of Cambridge PhD Physical Chemistry 1945
Njema Frazier
⚛️ Nuclear Physics
- none
Born: 1974
Country: USA
Education: National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Helen Murray Free
🔬 Chemistry
- She & her husband Alfred invented dip-stick tests
- She originally wanted to be an English teacher but WWII made it possible for more women to study science
- After graduating, began a career at Miles Labs where she & her husband improved & developed new strip testing
- After retiring, spent her time promoting science education with programs such as "Kids & Chemistry" & "Expanding Your Horizons"
- Held 6 patents
Born: 1923
Country: USA
Education: College of Wooster BS Chemistry 1945; Central Michigan University MA Management 1978
Elizabeth Jane Poorman French
⚕️ Galvanic Medicine
🔍 spititualism
- she contended electrical currents were the medium for the spiritual world
- maintained in 1833 a stroke of lightening killed her brother and sister and paralyzed one-half of her mother’s body; she then reportedly used “certain rude batteries” and “restored to life” her mother’s disabled side
- during the last decade of her life last decade of her life she turned away from galvanic medicine and became a Christian Scientist
- mentored Emma Harding (later professionally known as Dr. Emma Hardinge Britten) & together they opened free clinics in New York city & Philadelphia where poor women could receive electrical treatment for illnesses
- was a strong advocate for temperance & in 1874 was installed as president of a Temperance Union Home for alcoholics in Philadelphia
- fraudulently claimed to be a docyor &/or a professor during her life
Born: 1821
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Charlotte Friend
🔬 Microbiology
🔍 Virology
- Her techniques and characterisation studies allowed the future isolation of the human immunodeficiency virus & improved research on HIV
- 1956 discovered a particular virus caused leukemia in mice
- was an outspoken critic of sexism in science & defended Rosalind Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA
- 1975 helped create the Israeli Cancer Research Fund
- was renowned for her generosity in distributing Friend virus and Friend cells to those who wanted to work with them and for providing the necessary guidance and assistance
- loved to travel & her sabbatical years (1963 and 1975) were spent in laboratories in Australia, Israel, France, and Italy
- wrote a paper titled "Why I Want to Become a Bacteriologist" when she was 10
- although hired as a professor she avoided classroom teaching in favor of pure research
- spoke and wrote in favor of the rights of blacklisted colleagues during the 1950s McCarthy trials
- was the 1st female president of the New York Academy of Sciences
- was extremely close to her mother & lived with her until she died in 1961
- father died when she was 3 leaving mother alone to care for the 4 children & they went on "relief"
- enlisted in the US Navy after graduating in 1944 & was assigned to work in the hematology lab at US Naval Hospital Shoemaker in California
- 1966 began working as a professor & the director of the Center for Experimental Cell Biology at Mount Sinai Hospital
- diagnosed with lymphomas on her 60th birthday & insisted the diagnosis remain secret, she died 5 years later
- worked at Sloan Kettering Institute 1950-1966
- published 163 papers
Born: 1921
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BA 1944; Yale University PhD 1950 Microbiology/Bacteriology
Love Rosa Hirschmann Gantt
⚕️ Medicine
- second woman physician in the United States to become board-certified
- set up a private practice in 1905 in ophthalmology and otolaryngology
- was president of the American Medical Women's Association
- served on the South Carolina Board of Public Welfare for five years and was legislative chairman of the South Carolina Equal Suffrage League
- during World War I organized Liberty Loan drives, served on a draft board, directed recreation at Camp Wadsworth, and was commissioned as a medical examiner for Air Force pilots
- there is a historic marker about her located near the site of her medical office in Spartanburg's Morgan Square
- was a pioneer in public health, prevention of tuberculosis, medical inspection of schools, and social hygiene
- received appointments from five South Carolina governors and three U.S. presidents
- 1916 was instrumental in building the first synagogue in Spartanburg SC
- in WWI organized five hundred women volunteers to work in medical and other services
- 1924 negotiated with Oakwood Cemetery for a Jewish section which made Jewish burials possible in Spartanburg for the first time
- was resident physician at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina for 1 year before she quit to marry & opened a private practice
- was instrumental in establishing Spartanburg General Hospital, the first public hospital in the city
- founded the Spartanburg chapter of the American Red Cross
- established the state reformatory for girls
- had a strong interest in Mendelian genetics
- 1915 spoke before the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee to garner support for the submission of a women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution
- believed in some eugenics principles
- worked to decrease morbidity and mortality from pellagra
Born: 1874, 1875 or 1876 depending on source.
Country: USA
Education: Medical College of South Carolina MD 1901
Diana Garcia-Prichard
🔬 Physical Chemistry
- served on the Clinton-Gore transition team
- holds 1 patent
Born: 1949
Country: USA
Education: college of San Mateo LVN 1969; California State University at Hayward BS Chemistry/Physics 1983; University of Rochester MS 1985 & PhD 1988 both in Physical Chemistry
Timnit Gebru
💻 Computer Science
- none
Born: 1983
Country: Ethiopia
Education: Stanford University BS, MS, & PhD (2017) in Electrical Engineering
Lisa Gelobter
💻 Computer Science
- 2015 was the Chief Digital Service Officer for the United States Department of Education during President Barack Obama’s administration
- raised more than $2 million for tEQuitable, becoming one of the only thirty-four Black women to ever raise $1 million or more in venture capital
- has worked with Black Girls Code and the Kapor Center for Social Impact in efforts to address issues of racism and bias in the tech industry
- often took breaks from school due to financial challenges and worked as a Teaching Assistant (TA) during school semesters
- Shockwave transformed the internet and revolutionized the animation industry, with her invention largely influencing subsequent technologies, like Flash and HTML5
- today’s streaming, gaming, social media, and other digital privileges would not exist without her contributions
- it took her 24 years to graduate from college
- is an outspoken advocate for both racial and gender diversity in the tech industry
- no patents were located
Born: 1971
Country: USA
Education: Brown University BS Computer Science 2011 (while most sources list her graduation in 1991, she entered college in 1987 &, per interviews & quotes from her, it took her 24 years to complete her degree); also took classes at NYU Tish School of Arts & International Ombuds Association but was not awarded any degrees; some sources refer to her as Dr. Gelobter however no PhD either earned or bestowed on her was found
Eloise Gerry
🔬 Research Science
🔍 Botany
- one of the 1st women in the US to specialize in forest product research
- first woman appointed to the professional staff of the U.S. Forest Service at the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL)
- began working for US Forest Service in 1910 as a research scientist
- retired in 1954 after 44 years with the US Forest Service
- she spent her time improving methods to produce military supplies for World Wars I and II, writing stories for children, publishing more than 120 articles in technical and trade journals, and as an avid home gardener and local kennel club member
- always signed her full name, rather than using a single first initial, so that it was clear she was a woman
- in college she specialized in the anatomy of wood and trees and their physiological responses
- during WWII she shared in an investigation of Douglas-fir bark to determine whether it could be a source of cork, because traditional sources from North Africa and southern Europe were curtailed
- was an international expert on properties of commercially used species of foreign woods
- 1933 she was the only woman of FPL's staff to participate in the first radio broadcast from the lab on a national hookup, a part of the National Farm and Home Hour
- began raising Basenji's in 1942
- was an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin as well as a member of the Forest Products staff
- initially hired as a microscopist her job was to catalog the anatomical features of wood species that were sent to the lab
- 1916 initiated her own research into saving the pine tree population of the American South
- left the majority of her estate to Graduate Women in Science, an organization which provides funding/fellowships for women in science
- she showed that the lumber industry was cutting down trees at an unsustainable rate and her research helped to preserve local ecosystems and stabilize the pine-related turpentine industry by enabling more productive and longer-lived trees
Born: 1885
Country: USA
Education: Radcliffe College BA Chemistry 1908 & MA 1909; University of Wisconsin-Madison PhD Botany & Plant Pathology 1921
Andrea Mia Ghez
⚛️ Astrophysics
- her father was on the faculty of the University of Chicago & she was allowed to attend the Laboratory School there
- the Apollo program Moon landings inspired her to aspire to be the first female astronaut and her mother encouraged that goal by purchasing a telescope
- her most influential female role model was her high school chemistry teacher
- is an active swimmer in the UCLA Masters Swim Club
- heads UCLA’s Galactic Center Group
- her group is currently focused on using this approach to understand the physics of gravity near a black hole and the role that black holes plays in the formation and evolution of galaxies
- on the faculty at UCLA since 1994
- for 25 years has focused almost exclusively on Sagittarius A
- —a supermassive black hole
- began her career in astronomy studying young binary stars using the technique of infrared speckle imaging, which removes the blurring Earth’s atmosphere imposes on astronomical images by taking many pictures with very short exposure times and adding them together
- only the fourth woman to win a Nobel in physics
- born in New York city, she grew up in Chicago, the eldest of three sisters
- studies the kinematics, or interactions between stars, in order to characterize the extremely dynamic region at the galaxy’s center
Born: 1965
Country: USA
Education: MIT BS Physics 1987; California Institute of Technology PhD Physics 1992
Gloria Ford Gilmer
📊 Mathematics
📊 Ethnomathematics
- none
Born: 1928
Country: USA
Education: Morgan State University BS Mathematics 1949; University of Pennsylvania MA Mathematics; Marquette University PhD Education Administration
Anna Estelle Glancy
🔭 Astronomy
🔍 Optics
- was born & died in Waltham Massachusetts
- her patents are filed under the name A. E. Glancy
- received thirteen patents for her innovations during the period from 1929-1945
- worked at an observatory in Argentina for 4 or 5 years (time varies with different sources) because she couldn't find work as a female astronomer in the U.S.
- as of 1950 was still the only woman lens designer in the world
- experts in the field of television drew on her research in creating larger screens
- was discouraged of ever finding a job in astronomy in the U.S.& considered taking a job in an airplane factory
- her work on tracking the comet Morehouse inspired the 2012 film 1908 c
- is known as the first lady of optics
- a record of her observer’s notebooks and instrument logbooks are archived at the Lick Observatory
- is considered the first woman to do her own research at Lick Observatory
- her groundbreaking achievement was a series of glass-plate photographs she made from Mt. Hamilton of comet Morehouse (but they were attributed to a male colleague) in 1908 using the Crocker telescope
- in retirement she cited her progressive deafness as a factor in her success
- held 17 patents
Born: 1883
Country: USA
Education: Wellesley College BA Astronomy & Mathematics 1905; UC Berkeley PhD Astronomy 1913
Anita Goel
⚛️ Biophysics
- has over 80 patents worldwide (10 located)
- has testified in the US Senate for the $1.5 Billion dollar National Nanotechnology Initiative
- advised President Obama's PCAST for his Strategy for American Innovation
- served on the Triennial Review Board of the National Academy of Sciences
- is piloting a global initiative to build innovative public-private partnerships with academic, commercial, global thought leaders and NGO’s, to collectively harness innovations at this convergence to sustainably address some of the world’s most pressing needs in healthcare, energy, and the environment
- Gene-RADAR is a machine that identifies DNA and RNA signatures, essentially “molecular fingerprints,” and lets the user know what illness or disease the patient has by sorting through a database and finding the conditions that correspond to that fingerprint information
- Gene-RADAR has potential biodefense applications such as providing onsite detection of hazardous chemicals in bioterrorist attacks and similar devices could also be used to test water sources, crops, organs for transplant, and air quality
Born: 1973
Country: USA
Education: Stanford University BS Physics 1995; Harvard University PhD 2002 Physics; MIT-Harvard Joint Division of Health Sciences & Technology MD 2005
Adele Goldberg
💻 Computer Science
- was the only woman in the group that built Smalltalk-80, one of the most popular and influential early programming languages
- presented Smalltalk to Steve Jobs, who implemented many of these concepts into Apple’s first products
- many modern Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) have design standards that trace directly back to Goldberg’s original work
- enjoyed problem solving and mathematics from a young age
- most of her work at PARC is the foundation for today's graphically based user interfaces, which replace earlier command line base systems
- continues to pursue her interest in education, formulating computer science courses at community colleges in the United States and abroad
- The Computer History Museum (CHM) houses a collection of Goldberg's working documents, reports, publications and videotapes related to her work on the development of Smalltalk
- is sometimes called the 'godmother of GUI'
- has a twin sister
- joined Xerox PARC in 1973 & left 1988
- has 4 patents pending worldwide
Born: 1945
Country: USA
Education: University of Michigan BA Mathematics 1967; University of Chicago MA 1969 & PhD 1973 both in Information Science
Adele Katz Goldstine
📊 Mathematics
💻 Computer Science
- was an instructor of mathematics for the women "computers" at the Moore School
- trained some of the six women who were the original programmers of ENIAC to manually calculate ballistic trajectories
- work laid the groundwork for modern programming and the development of user-friendly computers
- 1964 published the documentation for the ENIAC project, making it available to the public
- taught math ay Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania & Princeton University
Born: 1920
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BA Mathematics; University of Michigan MAMathematics 1942
![Photo of Shafrira "Shafi" Goldwasser](/women_pictures/Goldwasser_Shafrira "Shafi".png)
Shafrira "Shafi" Goldwasser
💻 Computer Science
🔍 Cryptography
- is the RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997) after joining the faculty in 1983; a professor of mathematical sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science concurrent with her work at MIT since 1993; 2018-2024 the director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley
- holds dual citizenship in the US & Israel
- has become a fan and practitioner of “Playback Theater”, an improvisational interactive group experience
- moved to Israel with her family when she was approximately 6 & returned to the US for college in 1979
- holds dual Israeli & american citizenship
Born: 1958 or 1959 (depending on source used)
Country: USA
Education: Carnegie-Mellon University BS Applied mathematics 1979; UC Berkeley MS 1981 & PhD 1984 both in Computer Science
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