Women
Linda Jean Broadbelt
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- the motivation for her work is the desire to unravel the complexity in reacting systems
- she serves on the editorial board of the Royal Society of Chemicals journal Molecular Systems Design & Engineering; holds 5 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Ohio State University BS Chemical Engineering; University of Delaware PhD Chemical Engineering 1994; Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management Business for Scientists & Engineers Certificate
Meredith Broussard
✍️ Data Journalist
- TBD
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Harvard University BA; Columbia University MFA
Alison K. Brown
⚛️ Engineering
- holds 10 patents
- considers engineering to be the ultimate creative career
- the solutions she has developed are in every cell phone & an early prototype she developed is in the Smithsonian Museum
- wet to school in Edinburg Scotland before coming to the US to study at MIT
- was the only female in her science classes at Cambridge
- while at UCLA built 1 of the 1st GPS receivers
- was often faced with discrimination as a woman in the male world of engineering
- her motto is "if you underestimate me, you deserve what you get"
- loves animals & the outdoors
- lives on an 80-acre ranch in the Rocky Mountains where she keeps horses, hounds, chickens, cattle, & goats
- played ice hockey while at MIT
- came to the US on scholarsip & has since become a US citizen
Born: Unknown
Country: Scotland
Education: Cambridge University (specifically Fettes College & Sidney Sussex College) BA & MA Engineering 1979; MIT MSc Aeronautics & Astronautics 1981; UCLA PhD Mechanics, Aerospace, & Nuclear Engineering 1985
Deborah Blanche Washington Brown
💻 Computer Science
🔍 Speech Recognition
- 1st African-American woman to earn a Phd in Computer Science at Harvard University (1981)
- Has a twin brother, Melvin Charles Washington
- Wanted to be a classical pianist & attended New England Conservatory of Music in 1970 but left the following year
- Was elected Commencement Marshall at her Harvard graduation
- Her 1st job was developing software for missile defense technology
- Continued to study & teach piano, played at Carnegie Hall & excelled in competitions
- Held 16 patents, 11 in speech recognition
Born: 1952
Country: USA
Education: New England Conservatory of Music, 1970-71; Lowell Technical Institute, BA Mathematics, 1975; 1977, MA Applied Mathematics/Computer Science, 1981, PhD Applied Mathematics/Computer Science Harvard University
Kimberly Bryant
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
🔍 Biotechnology
Born: 1967
Country: USA
Education: BE Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 1989
Joy Adowaa Buolamwini
💻 Computer Science
- Introduces herself as a poet of code, daughter of art & science
- Founded Algorithmic Justice League to create a world with more equitable & accountable technology; uses art, advocacy, & research to highlight the social implications & harms of AI
- Born in Edmonton, Alberta & grew up in Mississippi
- At age 9, taught herself XHTML, JavaScript, & PHP
- Was a competitive pole vaulter
- Is a Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow, Stamps Scholar, Astronaut Scholar, & Anita Borg Institute Scholar
- 2011, Worked with trachoma program at the Carter Center to develop an android-based assessment system to use in Ethiopia
- 2013, worked with local computer scientists in Zambia to help Azmbian youth become technology creators
- Created Aspire Mirror, a device that allows users to see a reflection of themselves based on what inspires them
- Is CTO for Techturized Inc, a hair-care tech company
- Has created 2 films on AI bias
Born: 1989 or 1990
Country: Canada
Education: Georgia Institute of Technology BS Computer Science 2012; Oxford University MS Learning & Technology 2014; MIT MS 2017 & PhD 2022 both in Media Arts & Sciences
Alison Burklund
⚛️ Biomedical Engineering
- met co-founder Amogha Tadimety while they were both PhD candidates at Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering; credits Dartmouth's PhD Innovation Program wit providing support & tools necessary to get their research results from identifying global problems to allowing them to develop solutions for human need
- has 2 pending patents & clinical trials with 2 Massachusetts hospitals & hopes to have FDA approval for their tests within 2 years
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Johns Hopkins University BS Chemical & Biomedical engineering 2015; UC Berkeley MEng Bioengineering 2016; Dartmouth College Thayer School of Engineering PhD Engineering 2021
Ursula M. Burns
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- none
Born: 1958
Country: USA
Education: 1980, BS Mechanical Engineering, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute; 1981, MS Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University
Phyllis Ward Buwalda Riggle
🔬 Research Engineering
- was home school on a ranch in Colorado
- worked at JPL 31 years with final assignment as a research engineer
- worked with Werner von Braun & Richard Feynman
- was a gourmet cook, able seamstress & avid & creative gardener
- her instructions to engineers working on moon craft/rovers were based on her best guess as to what the moon's surface would be like & are often cited as examples of good leadership & strategy
Born: 1924
Country: USA
Education: Pomona College BS 1945
Jian Cao
🔬 Materials Science
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- joined staff at Northwestern 1995
- was drawn to mechanical engineering by a desire to improve human existence
Born: Unknown
Country: China
Education: Shanghai Jiao Tong University BS Materials Science & Engineering & Automatic Control 1989; MIT MS 1992 & PhD 1995 both in Mechanical Engineering
Monika Cechova
⚛️ Biomolecular Engineering
- has been working on Postdoctural research at UC Santa Cruz since 2022
- Speaks Czech, English, German & Slovak
Born: Unknown
Country: Czech Republic
Education: Masaryk University in Brno BS Applied Informatics 2011 & MS Bioinformatics 2013; Penn State University PhD Biology 2020
Maria Constanza Ceruti
🔍 high-altitude archaeology
🔍 anthropologist
🤖 mountaineer
- after receiving her PhD she lived in an adobe house near Pucora de Tilcara (a fortification built approximately 12th century AD by descendants of the Omaguaca people) for 5 years to manage a small museum & better understand village life & its connection to pre-Incan & Incan traditions
- graduated from the University of buenos Aires with perfect grades
- early in her career photographs showing her co-leading an expedition above 21,000 feet were omitted from a publication highlighting the project because "she looked like a teenage girl" & it was believed pictures of her would "make the work look easy." (atlas obscura)
- is of Andean descent & believes mountaineering is in her blood
- for over a decade the Museum of High Mountain Archaeology (MAAM) where the mummies of the Children of Llullaillaco are housed refused to acknowledge her major part in their discovery but now a small sign lists her role in the expedition
- her hobbies are photography, poetry, & learning indigenous languages
Born: 1973
Country: Argentina
Education: University of Buenos Aires BA Anthropology 1996; National University of Cuyo PhD Anthropology 2001
Rhonda Childress
🔍 Data Security
🔍 Privacy
- went to college on a full scholarship
- worked at IBM 2 summers during college
- worked at GM, the McDonnell Douglas after college before returning to IBM where she worked for over 30 years
- enjoys working with her hands using tools, perfecting her competition chili recipe, & designing & sewing quilts that are then auctioned off for charities
- is 1 of only 25 female IBM Fellows in the history of IBM
- didn't touch a computer until she got to college
- inhigh school, her father fought for her to be allowed to take shop classes instead of home ec
- is currently Chief Innovation Officer at Kyndryl
- grew up in rural Kentucky
- holds 264 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Kentucky State University BS Computer Science
Mary-Dell Chilton
🔍 Biotechnology
- 1 of the founders of modern plant biotechnology
- Led a research study that produced the 1st transgenic plants-the 1st genetically modified plants
- Has been called "the Queen of Agrobacterium"
- Holds 18 patents
Born: 1939
Country: USA
Education: University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1960 BS, 1967 PhD, Chemisrty; postdoctoral work, University of Washington-Seattle
Yvonne Young Clark
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- none
Born: 1929
Country: USA
Education: Boston Latin Academy-2 years of study; 1951, BS Mechanical Engineering, Howard University; 1972, MS Engineering Management, Vanderbilt University
Edith Clarke
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
- 1st woman professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the US (at GE)
- 1st female professor of electrical engineering in the US (at the University of Texas at Austin)
- Invented a graphical calculator in 1919
- 1918, 1st female to earn an electrical engineering degree at MIT
- 1st female to deliver a paper at The American Institute of Electrical Engineering
- 1st female engineer whose professional standing was recognized by Tau Beta Pi
- 1st female fellow at AIEE
- Was orphaned at age 12 & was raised by an older sister
- Worked on the design & construction of the Hoover Dam
- Held 2 patents
Born: 1883
Country: USA
Education: 1908, BA Mathematics & Astronomy, Vassar College; MSc Electrical Engineering, MIT; took engineering clases at Columbia University & University of Wisconsin-Madison but obtained no degree
Terica Clewis
🔬 Data Science
- is an artist and loves to paint portraits for her private art collection
- is a certified Scrum master and a certified UI/UX Designer
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: American Military University BBA 2012 & is a Master's candidate currently
![Photo of Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman](/women_pictures/Coleman_Catherine Grace "Cady".png)
Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman
🔍 chemist
⚛️ engineer
🤖 former United States Air Force colonel
🔭 and retired NASA astronaut
Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman
🔍 chemist
⚛️ engineer
🤖 former United States Air Force colonel
🔭 and retired NASA astronaut
- 1978-89 was an exchange student in Norway with the AFS Intercultural Program
- as an undergraduate was a member of the intercollegiate rowing crew
- 1988 entered active duty at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a research chemist & was a surface analysis consultant on the NASA Long duration Exposure Facilty experiement
- Retired from the Air Force in 2009 as a colonel
- 1995 on the NASA science mission USML-2 reported seeing a UFO to Houston Mission control
- Retired from NASA 2016 after almost 24 years with them
- is part of the band Bandella with fellow astronauts Stephen Robinson & Chris Hadfield & Micki Pettit, wife of astronaut Donald Pettit, playing the flute
- took several flutes to space & played a duet with with Jethro Tull & with the Irish band The Chieftains
- holds an amateur radio license
- 2019 was 1 of the astronauts feature on a set of commemorative stamps issued by the Irish postal service
- 2018 gave a graduation address to the only graduate of Cuttyhunk Elementary School on Cuttyhunk Island, MA
- was co-anchor of ABC News Lives' coverage of the SpaceX launch & the Perseverance Mars rover landing
- coached Sandra Bullock for her role in the movie "Gravity"
- enjoys flying, scuba diving, sports & music
Born: 1960
Country: USA
Education: MIT BS Chemistry 1983; University of Massachusetts Amherst PhD Polymer Science & Engineering 1991
Lizabeth Coller
💻 Software Quality Engineer
- likes to knit
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Syracuse University BS Electrical Engineering; Seattle University Master of software Engineering
Lynn Ann Conway
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
💻 Computer Science
✊ Transgender activist
- Is a transgender activist
- While working at IBM in the 1960s invented generalized dynamic instruction handling
- Initiated the Mead-Conway VLSI chip design revolution in very large scale integration (VLSI) microchip design
- 1968, was fired by IBM after revealing her intention to transition; IBM apologized in 2020
- After transition in 1968, took a new name & identity & restarted her career
- 1973, joined Xerox PARC & founded the "multiproject wafers" (MPW)
- Revolutionalized chip design & chip tools
- 2012, IEEE published a special issue of IEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine devoted to her career
- Went public with her transgender story in 2000; maintains a website to support others in their transition by providing medical information, maintaining lists of successful transgender people, providing news related to transgender issues & transgender & transexual issues in general
- Was a cast member in the 1st all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues in LA in 2004
- Holds 5 patents
Born: 1938
Country: USA
Education: MIT, Physics, 1955-59; Columbia University, BS 1962 & MSEE 1963, Electrical Engineering
Jeanne Lee Crews
⚛️ Aerospace Engineering
- NASA aerospace engineer who designed a flexible multi-shock shield to protect spacecraft from debris; still in use on ISS (Space Bumper)
- 1 of the 1st female engineers to join NASA
- 1 of the 1st women at NASA to participate in a zero-G flight
- Is working on a balloon to gather & accumulate orbital debris that will return to Earth once full
- Created the hyper velocity lab
- At Nasa she was allowed to fly some of the training simulators as long as no reporters saw her enter or exit the machines because they didn't want anyone to think there were female astronauts
- Worked on Apollo Missions & Skylab
- Holds 3 patents
Born: 1940
Country: USA
Education: University of Texas began BS in Aerospace Engineering but transferred to University of Florida for final year
Marian Rogers Croak
🔍 Digital Messaging
💻 computer science
- holds 213 patents
Born: 1955
Country: USA
Education: 1977, BA Princeton University; 1982 PhD Quantitative Analysis & Psychology, USC
Shaundra Bryant Daily
💻 Computer Science
- none
Born: 1979
Country: USA
Education: Florida State University College of Engineering, BS 2001; Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, MS; MIT, SM 2005 & PhD 2010
![Photo of Klara "Klari" Dan von Neumann](/women_pictures/Dan von Neumann_Klara "Klari".png)
Klara "Klari" Dan von Neumann
💻 Computer coding
💻 Programming
- At 14, became a national champion in figure skating
- she immigrated to the United States in 1938 after her marriage to her 3rd husband John who was a professor at Princeton University
- John went to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1943 & she remained at Princeton joining him in 1947 when she was contracted to work there
- her job at Los Alamos was to translate mathematical instructions into a language the computer could understand
- after her husband's death from cancer in 1957, she wrote the preface to his Silliman Lectures
- wrote an unpublished memoir entitled "A Grasshopper in Very Tall Grass"
- 2022, was the subject of a multi-episode season of the Lost Women of Science podcast
- married oceanographer and physicist Carl Eckart in 1958 and moved to La Jolla, California
- died in 1963 when she drove from her home in La Jolla to the beach and walked into the surf weighing down her dress with 15 pounds of sand and drowned, the San Diego coroner's office listed her death as a suicide
- was a self-taught engineer & computer scientist
- had a dog she named Inverse
- only had a high school diploma with algebra & trigonometry classes, took calculus at Columbia University in 1947 at her husband's suggestion
- worked at Princeton University's Office of Population Research investigating population trends during WWII & learning her mathematical skills
- 1962 asked to be removed from a computer magazine's mailing list because "I no longer work with computers"
- became a US citizen in 1942
Born: 1911
Country: Hungary
Education: Veres Pálné Gimnázium Budapest 1929.
Theda M. Daniels-Race
🔍 Nanotechnology
- TBD
Country: USA
Education: Rice University, BS Electrical Engineering 1983; Stanford University, MS Electrical Engineering 1985; Cornell University, PhD Electrical Engineering 1990
Ruth A. David
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
🔍 Homeland Security
- 1975 began her career at the Sandia National Laboratories & held several positions there
- 1986 became supervisor of the Data systems Development Organization
- 1989 trasferred to the FAA & managed the Dept of Non-Destructive Test, Electromagnetic Test & Optics program on aging aircraft
- 1995 was appointed Deputy director for Science & Technology at the CIA & left in 1998
- is the co-author of 3 books on signal Processing Algorithms
- Retired from ANSER in 2015
Born: 1953
Country: USA
Education: Wichita State University BS Electrical Engineering 1975; Stanford University MS 1976 & PhD 1981 both in electrical Engineering
Jennifer Davis
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- Invented & patented a novel approach for thermoplastic cascades, the vent-like structures that redirect airflow & help decelerate aircraft efficiently
- Holds 6 patents & has 14 pending
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: UC San Diego BS & BA Structural Engineering & Urban Studies & Planning 2015; UCLA MS Mechanical engineering 2019; UC San diego Extension Leadership & Management Program (LAMP) 2020
Lisa Seacat DeLuca
💻 Software Engineer
💡 Inventor
- is the most prolific inventor in the history of IBM
- worked at IBM over 16 years before moving to Unstoppable domains
- played on the women's basketball & volleyball teams at Carnegie Mellon University
- grew up in Montana
- loved storytelling & would type up scripts to be acted out by her stuffed animals & younger sister
- wrote her book "A Robot Story" with her children to get them excited & interested in technology
- has applied for more than 1000 patents with approximately 650 being granted & the remainder are pending
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Carnegie Mellon University BS Computer Science 2005; University of Texas McCombs School of business MS Technical Commercialization 2010
Giovonnae Anderson Dennis
⚛️ Electrical engineering
- 1979, one of the 1st African-American females to earn a PhD in Electrical Engineering & one of the few at a primarily white institution rather than a HBCU
- Worked at Hewlett-Packard designing microwave test equipment
- Founder of Software Tailoring, a company that uses 3-D body scans to provide patterns for tailoring & custom clothing design
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: UC Davis BA Physics, MA & PhD Electrical Engineering 1978
Olive Wetzel Dennis
⚛️ Civil Engineering
- Worked for the B&O Railroad 1920s; invented & patented several items to improve passenger comfort
- Held 2 patents in her name; remainder were assigned to the railroad
- Among her improvements were: the Dennis Ventilator, dimming overhead lights, reclining individual seats, stain resistant upholstery, air conditioning in coach cars, dressing rooms; designed a "shroud" that covered the front of locomotives & made it easier for mechanics to work on the engines
- B&O created the position of "service engineer" just for her
- Designed the Cincinnatian, a train containing all her innovations for B&O; Her name doesn't appear in any of the publicity materials for the train even though she was the designer
- When she was 10 her father gave her a set of tools & she built a scale model of a streetcar for her younger brother; it was complete with the seats capable of turning over & the steps moved up & down
- it is estimated she travelled between one-quarter & one-half million miles on trains, identifying & solving passenger problems along the way
Born: 1885
Country: USA
Education: Goucher College BA 1908; Columbia University MA Mathematics 19090; Cornell University MA Civil Engineering 1920
Tawanna R. Dillahunt
💻 Computer Engineering
💻 Human-computer interactions
- Her research has been cited more that 2,700 times according to Google Scholar
- She has received multiple grants from NSF to study, design, & evaluate technologies related to unemployment, environmental sustainability, & technical literacy
- Has a grant to study transportation barriers in underserved urban & rural communities in Michigan
- Holds 4 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: N. Carolina State University BS Computer Engineering 2000; Oregon Graduate Institute at Oregon Health & Science University MS Computer Science 2005; Carnegie Mellon University MS 2010 & PhD 2012 Human-Computer Interaction
Regina Elvira Dugan
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- worked at DARPA 1996 to 2000 & returned as Director in 2009
- 2014 when Motorola Mobility was acquired by Lenovo she remained at Google
- left google in 2016 to work at Facebook leaving there after approximately 18 months
- in a NY Times article titled "New Force Behind Agency of wonder" she was "credited with having a knack for inspiring, & indeed insisting on, creative thinking"
- was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 9 & given a 10% chance of survival & her family moved from chicago to Baltimore so she could receive treatment at Johns Hopkins
- one of her favorite poems is "Joy & Sorrow" by Kalil Gibran
- whenshe traveled to CalTech for her PhD she & some friends in 2 VW camper buses took 3 months to go from Houston to British Columbia, the Yukon, across Alaska to the Arctic circle, fished for salmon in Valdez, then down the West Coast to CalTech
- is certified to fly a helicopter
- holds 11 patents
Born: 1963
Country: USA
Education: Virginia Tech BS 1984, MS 1985 both in Mechanical engineering; CalTech PhD Mechanical Engineering
Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar
⚛️ Engineering
🔭 Astronaut
- flew on five Space Shuttle missions between 1985 and 1998, including two dockings with the Mir space station
- trained in Russia as a cosmonaut
- spent 50days 8hours 24miutes
- left NASA to become the president and chief executive officer of the Museum of Flight in Seattle
- grew up on a farm in Washington State and could drive a tractor when she was about nine years old
- helped her father repair tractors
- Future Farmers of America did not accept girls so when she was nine her father started a 4-H club so she could show cattle, which she did until she was eighteen & was the only girl in the club
- in high school was a member of the math club, debate club, speech club, and Latin club & played sports (was on the baseball team) and was a cheerleader for three years
- her high school career guidance counselor advised her that since she grew up on a farm, she should marry a farmer and have children
- wanted to join the University's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) unit but they didn't accept females so she joined Angel Flight, a coeducational military support-oriented organization
- became a fully-fledged NASA astronaut on August 21, 1981
- worked with Walter Cronkite on the CBS television coverage of the STS-2 mission
- wasthe first female graduate student in the UW’s Department of Mining, Metallurgical, and Ceramic Engineering (now Material Science Engineering)
- was the first woman to hold a fulltime professional position in the computer services division at the Boeing Space Center in Kent
- was first woman from Washington state to go into space
- while training in Russia she was not allowed to use the cosmonauts’ gym because there was no dressing room for women but was finally given a tiny changing closet in an upstairs room.
- At the age of 10, she was hit in the eye with a baseball but refused to come out of a game
- first woman assigned to a laboratory mission to operate the Spacelab, its subsystems and experiments
- family didn’t have indoor plumbing until she was a teenager
- growing up H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were her favorite authors
- joined NASA 1978 as a flight controller/payload specialist & retired as an astronaut 2005
- lived in Germany for 7 months to coordinate the Spacelab D-1 mission
Born: 1949
Country: USA
Education: University of Washington BS 1971 & MS 1975 both in Ceramics Engineering; University of Houston PhD Mechanical/Biomedical Engineering 1983
Frances Dunne
🤖 Airplane Mechanic
🔍 Explosives Tech
- little is known of her personal life, not even her date of birth (1903 & 1910 have been cited) or place of birth (most likely Canada)
- was orphaned at approximately age 4
- spent years at boarding schools
- unknown when she came to the US
- several sources state she attended numerous colleges but the only records reflect classes at Swarthmore College with no degree
- was living in New Mexico & working as an aircraft mechanic at the outbreak of WWII & was recruited for Los alamos because of her mechanical knowledge & small, dexterous hands
- it was rumored she worked for the FBI after the war but this has not been substantiated
- it was also rumored she worked as a fashionmodel in New York & wasa professional singer with Guy Lombardo's band before the war but this also has not been substantiated
- it is known she spent her years after the war until her death living in New Mexico
- was the only female in the Manhattan Project's Explosive Assembly Group
- 2018 the Los alamos National Lab opened the Frances Dunne Test Firing Facility for explosives testing, diagnostics, & data analysis
Born: 1903 or 1910
Country: Canada
Education: Swarthmore College-no degree
Nguyet Anh Duong
💻 Computer Science
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- is known as The Bomb Lady
- by 2001 was director of Insensitive Munitions Advanced Development at the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Indian Head Division, in Charles County, Md
- is noted as the "Scientist who developed the bomb that ended the war with Afghanistan" by the Vietnamese American National Gala
- her advice is attitude comes first, then aptitude, and finally, altitude, or success
- wanted to be a doctor until a H.S, zoology class & a required dissection showed her she was afraid of blood so she dropped the class to preserve her perfect GPA
Born: 1960
Country: South Vietnam
Education: University of Maryland, College Park B.S. Chemical Engineering & B.S. Computer Science 1982;
Annie Jean Easley
📊 Mathematics
💻 Computer Engineering
- Helped train African-Americans to take the voting test in her home state of Alabama
- Started skiing at age 46; founder & president of NASA Lewis Ski Club
- Tutored female & minority elementary & high school students in a work-study program & encouraged them to pursue careers in STEM
- Believed in the value of employee morale
- Developed software for the Centaur rocket stage
- Majored in pharmacy for 2 years before switching to math
- 1955, was 1 of 4 African-Americans hired by NASA out of 2,500 employees
- Was an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor at NASA & fought discrimination there
- Her photo was cut out of a NASA promotional photo because she was Black
- Worked at NASA for 34 years
- One of the 1st females to wear pants to work in the 1970s at NASA
- After retiring from NASA became an independent contractor in real estate
Born: 1933
Country: USA
Education: 2 years pharmacy school at Xavier University of Louisiana; Cleveland State University BS Mathematics 1977
![Photo of Omolola "Lola" Eniola-Adefeso](/women_pictures/Eniola-Adefeso_Omolola "Lola".png)
Omolola "Lola" Eniola-Adefeso
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
⚛️ Biomolecular Engineering
- Moved from Nigeria to Maryland at age 15
- After the death of her father due to heart disease, she began to investigate new treatment for heart disease
- Her lab has revealed new information about neutrophils (PMNs) & their reactions to vascular-targeting drug carriers (VTCs)
- At the zUniversity of Michigan School of Engineering has established a mentoring scheme & serves as graduate chair recruiting the most diverse students
- encouraged undergraduate students to develop experiments for K-12 teachers to use in their classrooms
- Holds 1 patent
Born: unknown
Country: Nigeria
Education: University of Maryland; University of Pennsylvania
Jeanette Jo Epps
🔭 Astronautics
⚛️ Aerospace Engineering
- Has been selected to fly to ISS in early 2024 as part of SpaceX Crew-8 crew
- Was chosen for the 20th class of NASA astronauts in 2009, graduating in 2011
- 2nd female & 1st African-american woman to participate in CAVES (Cooperative Adventure for Valuing & Exercising human behavior & performance Skills) a European space Agency astronaut training course where they train in space-analog cave environments
- Has a twin sister, Janet
- Her work at Ford Motor Company led to 2 patents
- Worked at the CIA for 7 years
- Was an aquanaut aboard Aquarius underwater lab during NEEMO 18 undersea exploration mission for 9 days
Born: 1970
Country: USA
Education: 1992, BS Physics, LeMoyne College; 1994 MS, 2000 PhD Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland
Aprille Joy Ericsson-Jackson
⚛️ Aerospace Engineering
🔍 Aeronautics
- 1st African-american female recipient of a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Howard University
- 1st African-American female to receive a PhD in engineering at Goddard Space Flight Center
- 1st person of color to receive the Washington Award
- Has worked with & for NASA since an undergraduate student
- Played on her high school basketball team & played the clarinet in the band
- Holds 1 patent
Born: 1963
Country: USA
Education: 1986, BS Aeronatical/Astronautical Engineering, MIT; 1990 MA, 1995 PhD Mechanical Engineering, Howard University; PhD Engineering, Goddard Space Flight Center
Carol Yvonne Espy-Wilson
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
- Her older brother (by 7 years), Calvin, began teaching her the math he was learning when she was 5
- 1st African-American & 1st African-American female to achieve tenure & be promoted to full professor at the University of Maryland Dept of electrical & Computer Engineering
- Founder of OmniSpeech, a startup that offers technology to improve sound quality over all phones & in hearing aids among other devices
- Holds 6 patents
Born: 1957
Country: USA
Education: Stanford University BS Electrical Engineering 1979; MIT Electrical Engineerind degree 1984, MS Electrical Engineering 1981, PhD Electrical Engineering 1987
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