Women - Women's Innovations

Jane Addams

🔍 Sociology 🔍 Public Administration

Details

🔍 Sociology 🔍 Public Administration

Leader in social work & women's suffrage
Co-founder of Hull House in Chicago
1st person to receive an honorary degree (MA) from Yale University
1931, 1st American female recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
At age 4, developed Potts disease (TB of the spine) which caused curvature of the spine & lifelong health problems
Part of the 1st wave of American females to receive a college education
Believed art was an important element of education 1901, founded what would ultimately become the Juvenile Probation Association, providing probation officers for Juvenile Court

Born: 1860

Country: USA

Education: 1881, graduated valedictorian Rockford Female Seminary, awarded Bachelors following year; 1910, received first honorary degree ever awarded to a female from Yale University

Frances Hamilton Arnold

⚛️ Chemical Engineering

Details

⚛️ Chemical Engineering

2018, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering the use of directed evolution to engineer enzymes
Co-chair of President Biden's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) since 2021
As a high school student, hitchhiked from her home in Pittsburgh to DC to protest the Vietnam War; lived on her own working as a cocktail waitress at a local jazz bar & as a cab driver
Was very independent, skipped a lot of school & received low grades while scoring almost perfectly on standardized tests
Applied to Princeton as a mechanical engineer because it was the easiest option to get into school
After her 2nd year at Princeton, took a year off, went to Italy & worked in a factory that made nuclear reactor parts
Founded GEVO to make fuels & chemicals from renewable sources; founded Provivi with 2 of her former students to research alternatives to pesticides for crop protection
Is a breast cancer survivor
Holds 56 patents

Born: 1956

Country: USA

Education: Princeton University, BS in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, 1979; University of California, Berkeley, MS, PhD in Chemical Engineering, 1985

Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi

🔬 Chemistry 🔬 Glycobiology

Details

🔬 Chemistry 🔬 Glycobiology

Won Nobel Prize in chemistry 2022
Coined the phrase "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems & invented the field
1st female recipient of Lemelson-MIT Prize Faculty award
While an undergraduate, played keyboard in several bands, most notably Bored of Education with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello
While at Berkeley, discovered viruses can bind to sugars in the body & led her to the field of research in glycobiology
Holds 32 patents

Born: 1966

Country: USA

Education: 1988, AB Chemistry, Harvard University; 1993, MS & Phd Chemistry, University of California, Berkely; Postdoctoral work in Immunology, University of California, San Francisco

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn

🔬 Molecular biology ⚕️ Medical Ethics

Details

🔬 Molecular biology ⚕️ Medical Ethics

2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Carol W. Greider & Jack W. Szostak for the discovery of telomerase
1st Australian female Nobel Laureate
2002, appointed to President's Council of bioethics; terminated by the Bush Administration in 2004 for her opposition to their policy against stem cell research; 170 scientists signed an open letter to the President maintaining she was fired because of political opposition to her advice & some scientists argued her firing was a violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 which requires "balance on such advisory bodies"
Teaches chronic stress, unhappiness, lack of sleep, & exercise lead to shortening of telomerase & increase the effects of aging
Holds 6 patents

Born: 1948

Country: Australia

Education: 1970, BS Biochemistry, 1972, MS Biochemistry, University of Melbourne; 1975, PhD Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge; 1975-77, Postdoctoral work, Yale University

Linda Brown Buck

🔬 Biology

Details

🔬 Biology

2004 won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Richard Axel for work on olfactory receptors
Originally wanted to be a psychotherapist, studying psychology at the University of Washington
Dissatisfied with her studies, she spent several years travelling; she lived on an island outside of Seattle for a while & explored different career options
Loves solving puzzles
Discovered the work to process smells happens in the nose, not the brain; discovered humans have approximately 350 smell receptors (rats have approx. 1,000) but we can detect approx 10,000 distinct odors
2001, she & her team published a "map" of the process by tracing olfactory genes from the nose to the brain
1st University of Washington female to win a Nobel Prize
Holds 3 patents

Born: 1947

Country: USA

Education: 1975, BS Microbiology & Psychology, University of Washington; 1980, PhD Immunology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Postdoctoral work, 1980-91, Columbia Uiversity

Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck

✍️ Author

Details

✍️ Author

her parents were missionaries who took her to China when she was 4 months old
was originally named Comfort
spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband
1914-32 served as a Presbyterian missionary
was an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption
1920 had a daughter Carol who was afflicted with phenylketonuria (PKU) that left her severely developmentally disabled
1925 adopted a daughter named Janice
1929 placed Carol in the Vineland training School in New Jersey where she lived for the rest of her life dying in 1992
argued that China did not need an institutional church dominated by missionaries who were too often ignorant of China and arrogant in their attempts to control it & this position led her to resign from the Presbyterian Missionary board
as she was unable to have any more children after Carol's birth she & her 2nd husband adopted two sons as infants in 1936 and another son and daughter in 1937
following the Communist Revolution in 1949, she was repeatedly refused all attempts to return to her beloved China & was devastated when she was denied permission to accompany Richard Nixon on his 1972 trip there
she & her husband adopted 2 more children of mixed race, an Afro-German girl in 1951 and an Afro-Japanese girl in 1957, giving her eight children in total
1967 she turned over most of her earnings—more than $7 million— to the adoption agency to help with costs
1962 she asked the Israeli Government for clemency for Adolf Eichmann because she believed that carrying out capital punishment against Eichmann could be seen as an act of vengeance, especially since the war had ended
1962 she urged the Kennedy administration to help resolve People's Republic of China-Taiwan relations by supporting de facto independence of Taiwan for a 10 to 25 year period with an agreement that afterwards a plebiscite could be held based on a negotiated settlement
Today the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro W. Virginia is a historic house museum and cultural center
she designed her own tombstone & her name is inscribed in Chinese characters, Sai Zhenzhu
Welcome House and Opportunity House merged in 1991 to form Pearl S. Buck International, headquartered on Buck’s estate, Green Hills Farm in Pennsylvania, which is a national historic landmark
published 5 novels under the name John Sedges including The Townsman (1945)
was active in American civil rights and women's rights activities
1950 wrote The Child Who Never Grew about her personal feelings and experiences with her developmentally disabled daughter Carol & the book helped many other parents of children with similar mental disabilities
as a child in China she roamed freely around the Chinese countryside, where she would often come upon the remains of abandoned baby girls, left for the village dogs, and she would bury them

Born: 1892

Country: USA

Education: Randolph-Macon Women's College (now Randolph College) BA Philosophy 1914; Cornell University MA English Literature 1926; Yale University MA

Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier

🔬 Microbiology 🔍 Genetics

Details

Gerti Radnitz Cori

🔬 Biochemistry

Details

🔬 Biochemistry

3rd female to win a Nobel Prize in science & 1st female awarded a Nobel in Physiology or Medicine (1947)
Was named after an Austrian warship
She & her husband, Carl Ferninand Cori, were the 3rd married couple awarded a Nobel
At 16, decided she wanted to be a doctor but lacked the prerequisites in Latin, physics, chemistry, & math; over the course of 1 year studied the equivalent of 8 years of Latin, 5 years of science, & 5 years of math to catch up
1922, immigrated to the US; 1928, became a naturalized citizen
Carl turned down many teaching positions because they wanted him to stop working with Gerti
1st American female to win a Nobel in science
6 scientists mentored by Geri & Carl went on to win Nobels

Born: 1896

Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Czech republic)

Education: Medical School of the German University of Prague, MD 1920

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin

🔬 Biochemistry 🔍 x-ray crystallography

Details

🔬 Biochemistry 🔍 x-ray crystallography

was banned from entering the US 1953-90 due to her left-wing views & associations with members of the Communist Party (including her husband) & required authorization from the CIA to enter the US
both parents worked in North Africa & the Middle East & were involved in archaeology
until she was 4 she lived with them in Cairo Egypt during winters & in England during the summer
sent to live with maternal grandparents 1914 to attend school & only saw her parents when they returned to England
at age 10 became very interested by crystals & by 13 was studying pebbles found in rivers near their homes & analyses them with a portable mineral analysis kit given to her by a family friend
1921 was 1 of 2 girls allowed to study chemistry at sir John Leman grammar School in Beccles England
1928 joined her parents at a dig in what is present-day Jordan & spent a year documenting the patterns of mosaics from several churches dating to the 5th & 6th centuries & conducting chemical analysis of glass tesserae tiles at the site, her drawings from that period are achieved at Yale University
Margaret thatcher was a student of hers & hung a portrait of Hodgkin in her office when she was Prime Minister
1936-1977 was the 1st fellow & tutor of chemistry at somerville College at Cambridge
1934 was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis that over time created deformities in her hands & feet, causing great pain & difficulty using her lab equipment to the point where she had to design & install special levers so she could use the machines
in her later years spent a great deal of time in wheelchairs but remained active in her lab until retiring
was known as dorothy Crowfoot until 1949, 12 years after she married
1982 an asteroid was named after her
1996 honored by a stamp issued by the British government
2010 honored on a stamp issued by the royal society & they also award a Fellowship in her name
Buildings & a school in England are named after her & plaques are erected at various places she lived & worked to honor her
it took her 4 years to map penicillin's 17 atoms, 8 years for the 181 atoms of vitamin B-12 & 34 years for the 788 atoms of insulin, she considered the last to be her crowning achievement
was a lifelong advocate for world peace after the death of 4 maternal uncles in WW1, campaigning against nuclear weapons & the Vietnam war
in the headlines of UK papers announcing her Nobel Prize she was referred to as "a mother of three" & a housewife noting she was involved in an "unhousewifely" career
retired from the public in 1988
is the 1st & only British woman recipient of a Nobel Prize in science

Born: 1910

Country: Egypt

Education: Somerville College Oxford BA Chemistry 1932; University of Cambridge PhD Chemistry of Sterols 1937

Marie Skłodowska Curie

⚛️ Physics 🔬 chemistry

Details

⚛️ Physics 🔬 chemistry

Many of her possessions (including her work notebooks & recipes) are still radioactive because she carried radioactive materials inher pockets, unaware of the negative effects at the time
1st female to win a Nobel Prize & only person to win Nobles in 2 different sciences
Named the element "polonium" after Poland, the country of her birth
Created & transported over 200 x-ray machines to field hospitals during WWI with her daughter Irene; they were known as petite curies
Due to her work, contracted radiation poisoning which eventually killed her
Carried out most of her work in a shed behind the school where her husband Pierre worked
Opened research centers in Paris & Warsaw
She & Irene are the only mother & daughter to win Nobels
Was reburied in The Pantheon (Paris' mausoleum for France's most revered dead) in 1995; 1st female awarded a place there for her own achievements
1906, 1st female professor at the Universite of Paris

Born: 1867

Country: Poland

Education: Flying University (an underground university in Poland); University of Paris, undergraduate degrees in 1893 & 1894, Phd 1903

Jennifer Anne Doudna

🔬 Biochemistry 🔬 Molecular Biology 🔍 CRISPR 🔬 RNA Biology 🔍 gene editing

Details

🔬 Biochemistry 🔬 Molecular Biology 🔍 CRISPR 🔬 RNA Biology 🔍 gene editing

2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Emmanuelle Charpentier for CRISPR & Ras9
Holds 109 patents
One of the 1st women to share a Nobel Prize in the sciences
Also known for the 1st x-ray based structure of catalytic RNA
While in the 6th grade, her father gave her a copy of James Watson's 1968 book, The Double Helix, which was a major inspiration for her
2017, co-authored, "A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing & the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution" a 1st person account of a major scientific breakthrough aimed at the general public

Born: 1964

Country: USA

Education: Pomona College, BA Biochemistry 1985; Harvard University MA & PhD 1989 Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology; University of Colorado-Boulder Postdoctoral Scholar in Biomedical Science 1991-1994

Esther Duflo Banerjee

💰 Economics

Details

💰 Economics

was the 2nd female & youngest person (age 46) to win a Nobel in economic sciences
most of her research has been situated in Africa & India
has been on the faculty at MIT since 1999
became an American citizen in 2012
spent 10 moths (1993-94) in Moscow as a French teaching assistant
grew up in a Paris suburb the middle child & noted her home was filled with freedon & joy
in 2019 J-PAL had 998 on-going or completed projects in their database running in 84 countries & at least 450 million people had been effected by policies scaled up after a J-PAL evaluation found them effective
before having children was an avid climber but now only climbs indoors & likes running, playing tennis & hiking
when she was 5 her father taught her how to ride the train by herself so she could visit a cousin who lived closer to Paris on weekends

Born: 1972

Country: France

Education: Ecole Normale Superieure BA History & Economics 1994; MA 1995 from DELTA (now Paris School of Economics) in conjunction with the Ecole Normale Superieure, Ecole Polytechnique & ENSAE; MIT PhD Economics 1999

Gertrude Belle Elion

🔬 Biochemistry 🔍 Pharmacology

Details

🔬 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

Andrea Mia Ghez

⚛️ Astrophysics

Details

⚛️ 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

Claudia Dale Goldin

💰 Economics 📚 Educator

Details

💰 Economics 📚 Educator

is a co-director (co-directing with Claudia Olivetti and Jessica Goldberg) of the National Bureau of Economic Research's (NBER) Gender in the Economy study group
was the director of the NBER's Development of the American Economy program from 1989 to 2017
1990 became the first woman to be tenured in Harvard's economics department
was determined to become an archaeologist until she read Paul de Kruif's "Microbe Hunters" (1926) in middle school & was drawn to bacteriology
in her sophomore year of college she took an economics class with Alfred Kahn & switched her major to economics
was an editor of the Journal of Economic History, from 1984 to 1988
for 28 years ending in 2017 was the director of the Development of the American Economy (DAE) Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
is the 3rd female to win the Nobel in Economics & the only woman to have been the sole winner of the prize
one of the central findings of her research is that differences in pay and labor force participation are due not to biological differences but to differences in the division of unpaid caregiving responsibilities between heterosexual couples
other influential work of hers focuses on the history of women’s participation in higher education, including the reasons why women now comprise the majority of university undergraduate enrollment numbers; the impact of the contraceptive pill on women’s marriage and career decisions; the social indicator of women’s surnames after marriage; and the life cycle of women’s employment

Born: 1946

Country: USA

Education: Cornell University BA Economics 1967; University of Chicago MA Economics 1969 & PhD 1972 Industrial Organization & Labor Economics

Carolyn Widney Greider

🔬 Molecular Biology

Details

Irene Joliet-Curie

🔬 Chemistry ⚛️ Physics

Details

🔬 Chemistry ⚛️ Physics

1935, won Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband Frederick, the 2nd married couple (after her parents) recipients
She & Frederick took great pains to seal & hide their research to keep it out of the hands of the Nazis
Was active in women's rights groups
One of the 1st 3 female members of the French government
Her mother & several of her scholar friends formed "The Cooperative" to privately home school their children for 2 years
Worked as a nurse radiographer alongside her mother during WWI; taught doctors how to locate shrapnel in bodies using radiography
Contracted TB during WWII
died at age 58 from leukemia likely due to exposure to polonium-210

Born: 1897

Country: France

Education: College Sevigne Baccalaureat 1914; University of Paris-Sorbonne BA 1916 & 1918 Mathematics & Physics, PhD Physics 1925 (research conducted at Institute du Radium)

Katalin Kariko

🔬 Biochemistry

Details

🔬 Biochemistry

Her patented technology was used by BioNTech & Moderna to develop their COVID-19 vaccines
She grew up in Hungary in a small home without running water, a refrigerator, or TV
During her primary education she placed 3rd in the country in a biology competition
1985, when her lab lost its funding she, her husband, & 2 year old daughter emigrated to the US, smuggling in $900 pounds in a teddy bear
Her research focus since 1989 has been on mRNA-based gene therapy
Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a 2 time Olympic gold medalist rower
Holds 16 patents
2023, co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Born: 1955

Country: Hungary

Education: University of Szeged, Hungary BS Biology 1978; PhD Biochemistry 1982; Postdoctoral work at Temple University

Rita Levi-Montalcini

🔬 Neurobiology

Details

🔬 Neurobiology

1986, won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor
Served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life from 2001 until her death in 2012
died at age 103 & is the longest living Nobel laureate
Had a twin sister Paola who was a painter
After seeing a close family friend die of stomach cancer, she decided to be a doctor instead of a writer
Lost her job as an assistant in the anatomy department at the University of Turin after a 1938 law barred Jews from holding university positions was passed
During WWII she set up a lab in her bedroom to study the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos
Survived the Holocaust when her family fled to Florence in September 1943 & lived under false identities with the help & protection of some non-Jewish friends
worked for Prof. Viktor Hamburger in his lab at Washington University in St. Louis for 30 years
1963, 1st female recipient of the Max Weinstein Award
She could trace her family's Jewish roots to the Roman Empire
At age 94 she sued Beppe Grillo, an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, & politician, for calling her an "old whore"

Born: 1909

Country: Italy

Education: University of Turin Medical School MD 1936

Maria Goeppert Mayer

⚛️ Theoretical Physicist

Details

Barbara McClintock

🔍 Botany 🔍 Cytogenetics

Details

Nadia Murad

✊ Human Rights Activist

Details

Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski

⚛️ Physics

Details

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

⚛️ Physical Cosmology

Details

Susan Solomon

🔍 Atmospheric Chemist

Details

🔍 Atmospheric Chemist

Is a leader in the field of atmospheric science
Pioneered the theory explaining why the ozone hole occurs in Antarctica & obtained some of the 1st chemical measurements that helped establish the chlorofluorocarbons as its cause
2007, shared the Nobel Peace Prize
Spent most of her career at NOAA
Became interested in science from watching the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau as a child
In high school, placed 3rd in a national science competition
2011, joined the faculty at MIT
Solo leader & only female on 2 expeditions to McMurdo Sound in 1986 & 1987
Her work formed the basis of the UN Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to protect the ozone layer by regulating damaging chemicals

Born: 1956

Country: USA

Education: Illinois Institute of Technology B.S. Chemistry 1977; University of California Berkeley M.S. 1979; Ph.D. Chemistry with a specialization in Atmospheric Chemistry 1981

Donna Theo Strickland

⚛️ Physics 🔍 Optics

Details

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

⚛️ Medical Physics

Details

⚛️ 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