Women - Women's Innovations

Alberta Jones Seaton

🔍 Embryology 📚 Educator 🔬 Researcher

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Florence Barbara Seibert

🔬 Biochemistry

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Jesse Shanahan

⚛️ Astrophysics

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Lucy Shapiro

🔬 Developmental Biology

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🔬 Developmental Biology

Founded the new field of developmental biology, using microorganisms to examine fundamental questions in developmental biology
Her work has furthered the understanding of the basis of stem cell function & the generation of biological diversity
Enrolled at Brooklyn college with a double major in Fine Arts & Biology intending to be a medical illustrator; was part of an experimental honors program & allowed to design her own curriculum
Focused on how a cell organizes its 3D structures & launched her own lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1967
Is involved in the development of drugs that will attack both a particular bacteria & its mechanisms of drug resistance to prevent drug-resistant strains from developing
Served as a White House advisor on Bioterrorism
Holds 2 patents

Born: 1940

Country: USA

Education: Brooklyn College AB Fine Arts & Biology 1962; Albert Einstein College of Medicine PhD Molecular Biology 1966

Carla J. Shatz

🔬 Neurobiology

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🔬 Neurobiology

1st woman to receive a PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard
1st woman to receive a tenured position in the basic sciences at Stanford Medical School & head Harvard's Dept of Neurobiology
Studied the development of the mammalian visual system
1 of the pioneers who determined some of the basic principles of early brain development
Discovered the spontaneous activity of neurons in utero is critical for the formation of precise & orderly neural connections in the central nervous system
Discovered that waves of spontaneous activity in the retina can alter gene expression & the strength of synaptic connections
2000, she & colleagues identified the MHC Class 1 molecules as important for neuronal plasticity
Holds 2 patents

Born: unknown

Country: USA

Education: Radcliffe College BA & MA Chemistry 1969; University of the College of London MPhil Physiology 1971; Harvard Medical School PhD Neurobiology 1976

Hilla Sheriff

⚕️ Medicine

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Patsy O'Connell Sherman

🔬 Chemistry 💡 Inventor

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🔬 Chemistry 💡 Inventor

Co-inventor of Scotchgard
1st woman inducted into 3-Ms Carlton society (1974)
Took an aptitude test in high school that said she was most suited to be a housewife; insisted she be allowed to take the test given to boys & those results showed dentistry or science as potential career paths
Began her career at 3M & was tasked with developing a rubber that could be used for jet fuel hoses; spilled a sample of fluorochemical rubber on a colleagues she & couldn't get it off; over time noticed the spot didn't get dirty or stained; subsequently developed into Scotchgard
Mid-1980s, developed 3M's technical education department
During the development of Scotchgard in the 1950s she had to wait outside the textile mill used for testing before she was given the results because women weren't allowed inside the mill
Worked at 3M over 40 years
Held 16 patents

Born: 1930

Country: USA

Education: Gustavus Adolphus College BS Chemistry & Mathematics 1952

Mary Lura Sherrill

🔬 Chemistry Educator 🔬 Researcher

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Tina M. Shull

💻 Computer Science

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Dorothy Martin Simon

🔬 Chemistry

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Maxine Frank Singer

🔬 Molecular Biology

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Mary Fairfax Somerville

📊 Mathematics 🔭 Astronomy 📊 Polymath

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📊 Mathematics 🔭 Astronomy 📊 Polymath

Astronomer & mathematician instrumental in the discovery of Neptune
Published 5 solutions in Volumes 3 & 4 of the Mathematical Repository under the pseudonym "A Lady"
Said to be the world's 1st scientist because "man of science" didn't fit her
Struggled to get her work accepted due to the long-held belief women weren't intelligent enough to study science
1835, she & Caroline Herschel were the 1st women elected to the Royal Astronomical Society
At age 33 bought herself a library of scientific books
Her 2nd husband, Dr. William Somerville, encouraged her education & scientific pursuits
Was a math tutor and friend of Ada Lovelace
Produced an early version of the optical spectrometer
Was asked to translate "Mecanique Celeste" by Pierre-simon Laplace & produced a translation & expanded version of the 1st two volumes; wrote a standalone exposition of the mathematics behind the workings of the solar system
1848, published "Physical Geography" the 1st English textbook on the subject
1868, at the age of 87, was the 1st person to sign John stuart Mills' unsuccessful petition for female suffrage.

Born: 1780

Country: UK

Education: age 10-1 yr boarding school; self-taught

Joan Elaine Argetsinger Steitz

⚛️ Molecular Biophysics 🔬 Biochemistry

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⚛️ Molecular Biophysics 🔬 Biochemistry

1980 with Michael Lerner, discovered & defined the function of small ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) in pre- messenger RNA
Attended an all-girls high school in Minnesota
1st female graduate student to join the lab of Nobel Laureate James Watson & worked with him on bacteriophage RNA
1975, demonstrated that ribosomes use complementary base pairing to identify the start site on mRNA
Her work helps explain the phenomenon of "alternative RNA splicing"
Discovered that introns (which were thought to be inert) code for snoRNAs that target the modification of other cellular RNAs during their maturation
Her research on snRNPs (pronounced "snurps") may have a significant impact on the diagnosis & treatment of lupus
Holds 1 patent

Born: 1941

Country: USA

Education: Antioch College BS Chemistry 1963; Harvard University PhD Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Moogega Cooper Stricker

🔭 Astronomy

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🔭 Astronomy

Her first name means rainbow in Korean
Lead of Planetary Protection for Mars 2020 Mission
Involved with the Insight Mission, the practice of protecting solar system bodies from contamination by Earth life & protecting Earth from possible life forms that may be returned from other solar system bodies
2013, participated on the first season of King of the Nerds, finishing 5th
2017, panelist in "The Original Martian Invasion" episode of Bill Nye Saves the World
Between 2015 & 2020, appeared in 33 episodes of How the Universe Works
Influential in making science accessible to more people by making it easier to understand

Born: 1985

Country: USA

Education: Hampton University BS Physics 2006; Drexel University College of Engineering MS 2008 PhD 2009 both in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Thermal Fluid Sciences

Donna Theo Strickland

⚛️ Physics 🔍 Optics

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Thyrsa Ann Frazier Svager

📊 Mathematics 📚 Educator

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Latanya Arvette Sweeney

💻 Computer Science

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💻 Computer Science

Credited with the observation that "87% of the US population is uniquely identified by date of birth, gender, & postal code"
Her best known academic work is on the theory of k-anonymity
1st African-American woman awarded a PhD in computer science from MIT
Demonstrated that a medical dataset in the public domain can be used to identify individuals regardless the removal of all explicit identifiers when the medical dataset was combined with a public voter list
Since 2011 her lab at Harvard has been conducting research on data privacy
Her research results greatly impacted HIPPA regulations
Holds 3 patents

Born: unknown

Country: USA

Education: Harvard University Extension School ALB Computer Science 1995; MIT SM Electrical Engineering & Computer Science 1997 PhD Computer Science 2001

Alina Szmant

🔬 Marine Biology

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Esther Sans Takeuchi

🔬 Materials Science

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Valerie Elaine Taylor

💻 Computer Science

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Kathleen C. Taylor

🔬 Physical Chemistry

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Maria Telkes

⚛️ Biophysics

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Valerie LaVerne Thomas

⚛️ Physics 🔍 data scientist 💡 inventor

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⚛️ Physics 🔍 data scientist 💡 inventor

Invented the illusion transmitter; it transmits an optical illusion of a 3D image between concave mirrors that looks real on the receiving end; led to 3D movie technology
Retired from NASA in 1995 after working there for over 30 years
Developed the digital media formats that image processing systems used in the early years of NASAs Landsat Program
Led a 50 member team of scientists from NASA, NOAA & USDA that created LACIE (Large Area Crop Inventory experiment) used in agriculture
Mentored children for careers in STEM
After retiring has worked as a substitute teacher
Holds 1 patent

Born: 1943

Country: USA

Education: Morgan State University BS Physics 1964; George Washington University MA Engineering Administration 1985; University of Delaware PhD Educational Leadership 2004

Martha J.B. Thomas

🔬 Chemistry

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Margaret Ellen Mayo Tolbert

🔬 Biochemistry 📚 Teacher 🔍 Administrator

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Rubye Mayette Prigmore Torrey

🔬 Chemistry

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Ann Tsukamoto

🔬 Stem Cell Researcher 💡 Inventor

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Chelsea Walton

📊 Mathematics 🔍 Noncommutative Algebra

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Dawn N. Ward

🔬 Chemistry

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Jessica Lee Ware

🔬 Evolutionary Biology 🔍 Entomology

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Alicia Nicki Washington

💻 Computer Science 📚 Educator

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Talitha M. Washington

📊 Mathematics

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Margaret (Maggie) Werner-Washburne

🔬 Molecular Biology

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Gladys Mae Brown West

📊 Mathematics

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📊 Mathematics

Developed satellite geodesy models leading to GPS
Was one of NASAs Hidden Figures
Designed a program to determine the movements of Pluto in relation to Neptune (Project 29V)
Was the program manager for Seasat, an ocean surveillance satellite
Her parents were farmers in a sharecropper community
Was her high school valedictorian; received a full scholarship to Virginia State College (now Virginia State University)
Initially worked as a teacher in racially segregated schools
Applied for many government jobs but they were given to white men
1956, 4th black employee hired at US Naval Proving Grounds in Dahlgren, VA
Obtained a PhD in Public Administration at age 70 after recovering from a stroke
As a child worked on the family farm; saw education as a way out of farm work
Worked at Dahlgren 42 years

Born: 1930

Country: USA

Education: Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) BS 1952 & MA 1955, both in Mathematics University of Oklahoma 2nd MA Public Administration 1973 Virginia Polytechnic Institute PhD Public Administration & Policy Affairs 2000

Marsha Rhea Williams

💻 Computer Science 📚 Educator

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Sophie Wilson

💻 Computer Science

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Geraldine Pittman Woods

🔬 Neuroscience

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Chien-Shiung Wu

⚛️ Physics

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⚛️ Physics

Worked on the Manhattan Project; helped develop the process for separating uranium into uranium-235 & uranium-238 isotopes by gaseous diffusion
Known for the Wu Experiment which proved parity was not conserved
Was likely denied the Nobel Prize for Physics due to sexism; colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee & Chin-Ning Yang won it in 1957
Her nicknames include "First Lady of Physics," "the "Chinese Madame Curie," & the "Queen of Nuclear Research"
She was very close to her father, an engineer who encouraged women's equality, was an activist in the revolution led by Sun Yat-sen; he led a militia & sought out girls to join his new school which Chien attended
At age 10 was sent to a boarding school 50 miles from her home
Her habit was to self-study, reading books on subjects that interested her in order to gain additional knowledge
Was active in student politics; led protests & a sit-in at the Presidential Palace in Nanjing
An uncle provided the funds for her to attend the University of Michigan & she left for the US in 1936; never again saw her parents; wasn't allowed back into China to visit remaining family until 1970s
Was shocked by sexism in America, especially at University of Michigan; transferred to UC Berkeley & ultimately to Caltech
Was an authority on beta decay
Became a US citizen in 1954
Was asked by many other physicists to design & conduct experiments to test their theories
1975, met with President Ford & requested he form an advisory scientific body resulting in the formation of the Office of Science & Technology Policy
Was an outspoken advocate for human rights

Born: 1912

Country: China

Education: National Central University (now Nanjing University) BA Physics 1934; UC Berkeley PhD Physics 1940

Peisu Xia

💻 Computer Science

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Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

⚛️ Medical Physics

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⚛️ Medical Physics

With Dr. Solomon Benson developed radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique, a method for measuring concentrations of substances in blood; 1977 co-winners of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for RIA
Viewed the traditional role of a homemaker as a priority & devoted herself to the duties of motherhood & wife; incorporated her home life in her work life whenever she could
1941, was the only female faculty member out of 400 when she accepted a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign & was the 1st female since 1917 to attend or teach at the Engineering College
Shunned women's organizations & didn't approve of special considerations for women; wasn't a champion of improving women's treatment or representation in science
1946, began teaching at Hunter College; steered Mildred Dresselhaus away from a career teaching primary school & into a research career
By 1950 equipped a radioisotope lab at the Bronx VA Hospital & left teaching to do full-time research; this was where she & Benson developed RIA
She & Benson refused to patent their work
"Mother of Endocrinology" has been offered as a fitting title for her
1st American-born female to win a Nobel in a scientific field

Born: 1921

Country: USA

Education: Hunter College BA Physics 1941; University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign MA 1942, PhD 1945 Nuclear Physics; also took Physics classes at NYU; diploma American Board of Radiology 1951