Women
![Photo of Isabella "Izzie" Aiona Abbott](/women_pictures/Abbott_Isabella "Izzie" Aiona.png)
Isabella "Izzie" Aiona Abbott
📚 educator
🔍 phycologist
🔍 and ethnobotanist
- born as Isabella Kauakea Yau Yung Aiona
- first native Hawaiian woman to receive a PhD in science
- leading expert on Pacific marine algae
- her Hawaiian name means "white rain of Hana" and she was known as "Izzy"
- was the only girl and second youngest in a family of eight siblings
- 1966 became a research associate and taught as a lecturer at Hopkins Marine Station run by Stanford University from 1960-1982
- 1972 was promoted to full professor of Biology, where she was the first woman and first person of color in this position
- 1982 she & her husband retired, returned to Hawaii where she was hired by the University of Hawaii to teach ethnobotany
- her nickname is "First Lady of Limu" (limu means seaweed in Hawaiian)
- several species of algae are named after her, including the Rhodomelaceae family (red algae) genus of Abbottella
- Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi unanimously voted to rename the Life Sciences Building after Abbott in 2023
- her culinary prowess with kelp was featured in Gourmet in 1987
- was among the first scientists to recognize how marine environments rely on healthy seaweed forests
- proudly displayed a Hawaiian flag quilt made by her grandmother on her dining room wall (the heirloom was made by her grandmother in defiance because it was during a time when the flag’s display was banned following the overthrow of the Native Hawaiian government in 1893)
- in high school was known to be a ‘walking dictionary’
- wrote numerous recipes for cooking with kelp and other seaweeds
- frequently brought dishes that used various seaweeds as an ingredient to potlucks and picnics at Hopkins
- allowed her graduate students to explore their own research interests, rather than insisting they work on her topics
- relied heavily on oral histories, often crediting elders in her work, to preserve what was quickly diminishing ocean knowledge
- battled breast cancer
- christened a new alga species hiʻialakaiana; translation: embracing or searching the pathways of the sea
- played an active role in preserving and promoting Hawaiian culture and language, working to document and classify the traditional uses of Hawaiian plants and advocating for the recognition of Hawaiian as an official language
Born: 1919
Country: Maui, HI
Education: University of Hawaii at Mānoa AB Botany 1941; University of Michigan MS Botany 1942; University of California, Berkeley PhD Botany 1950
Faye Glenn Abdellah
⚕️ Nursing
- 1st nurse to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the US Navy; developed the 1st tested coronary care unit; helped change the focus of nursing from disease-centered to patient-centered; her Patient Assessment of Care Evaluation method to evaluate health care is now the national standard; founded the Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
- Korean War veteran
- in frustration over the lack of scientific basis in the National League of Nursing guidlines she burned a stack of curriculum guides in the courtyard at Yale University while working there; it took her 1 year to pay for the destroyed books
- has received over 50 academic awards & recognitions
- her theory identified 10 steps to identify a patient's problem & 11 nursing skills used to develop a treatment typology (for a list of both sets of steps see nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Faye-Abellah.phys)
- her only sibling (an older brother) died of pancreatic cancer after a 5-year tour of duty in the Philippine Islands during WWII where he & others were exposed to a highly toxic water supply
- decided to be a nurse after witnessing the explosion of the Hindenburg when she was 18 & feeling helpless at her inability to help others
- her BS focused on sciences like physiology & chemistry whuile her MA & PhD focused on education
- worked at the Public Health Service 40 years
- a collection of her papers is at the National Library of Medicine
Born: 1919
Country: USA
Education: Fitkin Memorial Hospital (now Ann May School of Nursing) RN; Douglass Residential College of Rutgers University; Teacher's college at Columbia University BS, MA & PhD Educational Psychology
Rediet Abebe
💻 Computer Science
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
- 1st female & Black computer scientist appointed to the Harvard Society of Fellows
- Founded MD4SG & Black in AI
- Born & raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; left for educational purposes
- Developes techniques in AI & algorithms with a focus on inequality & distributive justice
- 1st Black female professor in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Dept at UC Berkeley
Born: 1991
Country: Ethiopia
Education: Cornell University (Ph.D., M.S.)University of Cambridge (M.A.)Harvard University (M.S., B.A.)
Lilia Ann Abron
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
⚛️ Environmental Engineering
- 1st Black female to earn a PhD in chemical engineering
- Born prematurely at home in Memphis, TN & taken by cab to hospital because ambulances weren't available to Blacks in Memphis at the time
- Was a girl scout & sang in her church choir
- Founder of PEER in US & Africa; goal is to solve environmental problems in providing sustainable housing to the poor
- Her company provides financial support to science fair participants
Born: 1945
Country: USA
Education: LeMoyne-Owen College BS Chemistry 1966; Washington University, St. Louis MS Environmental Engineering 1968; University of Iowa PhD Chemical Engineering 1972
Alice Merner Agogino
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- worked in the technical industry at Dow Chemical & GE before turning to research & academia; was instrumental in getting more women & minorities into engineering; has written or co-written over 438 articles see scholar.google.com/citations?user=G-xTgkgAAAAJ for a complete list
Born: 1952
Country: USA
Education: University of New Mexico BS Mechanical Engineering 1975; UC Berkeley MS Mechanical Engineering 1978; Stanford University PhD Engineering-Economic Systems & Engineering Management 1984
Joanna Aizenberg
🔬 Chemistry
- Pioneer in field of biomimetic inorganic materials
- was a recurring winner of mathematics Olympiads
- 2013 appeared on an episode of NOVA8Holds approximately 90 patents (66 found)
Born: 1960
Country: Russia
Education: Moscow State University BS Chemistry 1981 & MS Physical Chemistry 1984; Weitzmann Institute of Science PhD Structural biology 1996
Reka Z. Albert
⚛️ Physics
🔬 Biology
🔬 Network Science
- Professor of Physics & adjunct Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University
Born: 1972
Country: Romania
Education: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai din Cluj-Napoca BS 1995 & MS 1996; University of Notre Dame PhD 2001; Postdoc research in Mathematical Biology at the University of Minnesota
Madelaine (born Marie Jana Korbelova Albright
💰 Finance
🏛️ Politics
- Immigrated to the US in 1948, became a US citizen in 1957
- Was an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie 1976-78
- Helped assemble President Clinton's National Security council after 1992 Presidential election
- 1997, reported her parents never informed her or her siblings of their Jewish heritage, they converted to Catholicism during WWIIParents originally taught her at home so she wouldn't be exposed to communist teachings in Prague, 1st attended school in Switzerland
- Changed her name to Madelaine after learning French
- Met her 1st husband when she was an intern at the Denver Post
- Worked as a picture editor at the Encyclopedia Britannica for 1 year (1960)
- 1st female Secretary of State
Born: 1937
Country: Czechoslovakia
Education: Wellesley College BA Political Science 1959; Columbia University MA, PhD 1975; Certificate in Russian from Russian Institute (now Harriman Institute)
Norma Arcelia Alcantar
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- born & grew up in Mexico City, Mexico; credits her mother, Acrelia Alcantar, & her grandmother, Balbina Zamora, as the 2 forces who guided her life & career; grandmother was illiterate & Norma taught her how to read & write when she was middle-aged; spent lots of time with her grandmother while her mother was working helping her care for her over 300 birds & tending to her native medicinal plants; grandmother taught her that boiling nopals of prickly pear cactus in muddy water would purify the water; she later discovered it was the cactus mucilage that purified the water; used her water purification method in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to purify water for the victims; also used the technique after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill; holds 23 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: Mexico
Education: BA Chemical Engineering 1993; UC Santa Barbara PhD Chemical Engineering 2000
Claudia Alexander
⚛️ Geophysics
🔬 Planetary Science
- Program manager for NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter
- Born & raised in Vancouver, BC
- Science coordinator for the plasma wave instrument aboard Galileo
- Oversaw trafficking & navigation support from NASA's Deep Space Network for Rosetta mission to study & land on comet 67P?Churyumov Gerasimenko
- Wrote children's books including some of the "Windows to Adventure" series
- Also wrote science fiction
Born: 1959
Country: Canada
Education: 1983, BA in Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley; 1985, MA in Geophysics & Space Physics, University of California, Los Angeles; 1993, PhD in Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Sciences specializing in space plasma, University of Michigan
Betsy Ancker-Johnson
⚛️ Plasma Physics
⚛️ Engineer
- was the first woman Presidential appointee in the U.S. Department of Commerce 1973 as assistant secretary for science and technology
- fourth woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering
- was an affiliate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington from 1961 to 1973
- became the first woman vice-president in the automotive industry as the vice-president of General Motors' environmental activities staff
- has described plasma as a fourth state of matter after liquids, solids, and gases & observed the occurrence of “pinching,” as well as the phenomenon of microwave emission from an electron-hole plasma initiated only by the application of an external electric field; her work in this area lead to subsequent findings that solid-state plasmas can serve as microwave sources of radiation
- advocated for a conversion to the metric system and DNA research, which eventually led to the Genome Project in 1990
- liked traveling, kayaking, backpacking, scuba diving, & earned a yellow belt in Aikido
- after retiring from GM in 1992 began competitively swimming in the Master's swimming program. & at 80 placed third in the 2008 World Masters Championships at Perth in the 800m freestyle
- after her daughter Ruth lost her vision she began reading scientific books for the blind in her honor
- competed in international swimming events into her 80s
- held 5 patents
Born: 1927
Country: USA
Education: Wellesley College BA Physics 1949; University of Tubingen PhD Physics 1953
Dorothy Hansine Andersen
⚕️ Medicine
- was an American physician, pediatrician, and pathologist who first identified, describe & name cystic fibrosis in 1938
- developed a simple, definitive diagnostic test for it
- during WWII developed a training program for surgeons pioneering in open-heart surgery
- did path-breaking research in nutrition
- 1938 while doing an autopsy on a child who was suspected of dying from celiac disease she noticed a lesion in the pancreas which subsequently led to her identifying cystic fibrosis (CF) as a separate disease
- taught anatomy at the University of Rochester
- 1928 was denied a surgical residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY because she was female
- 1929 joined the staff at the Dept of Pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
- considered herself a roofer, stone mason, carpenter & cabinet maker & made her own home improvements
- Was considered a "character" by colleagues because she was outspoken, had an untidy lab, & held semi-annual "glug" parties in her lab in honor of her Scandinavian heritage
- her father died when she was 13 & she assumed full responsibility for her invalid mother who died 7 years later
- during WWII was a consultant to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
- her papers can be found at Columbia University Irving Medical Center Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library
- spent her leisure time at her cabin in the NJ Kittitinny Mountains
Born: 1901
Country: USA
Education: Mt. Holyoke College BA Zoology & Chemistry 1922; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine MD 1926; Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons PhD Medical Sciences 1935
Gloria Long Anderson
🔬 Chemistry
- Pioneer in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
- Known for studies of fluorine-19 & solid rocket propellants
- Started school at 4 years old & already knew how to read
- Attended segregated schools with few science & math classes
- In college, signed up for chemistry classes on a dare
- Was rejected for a job at Ralston-Purina as a chemist because she was African-American
- funded her own research; found it difficult to obtain funding due to her race
- Appointed by President Nixon for a term on the corporation for Public Broadcasting's Board in 1972; served 7 years
Born: 1938
Country: USA
Education: B.S. in Chemistry & Mathematics. Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College, 1958; MA in Chemistry, Atlanta University, 1961; PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry, University of Chicago, 1968
_Monica.png)
Monica Anderson (Robotics)
💻 Computer Science
🔍 Robotics
- Works on robotics with a focus on multi-agency systems, multi-robot systems & user interfaces
- Director of Distributed Autonomy Lab at Computer Science Dept of University of Alabama
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Chicago State University BS Computer Science 1990; University of Minnesota PhD Computer Science/Engineering 2006
Ethel Percy Andrus
📚 Educator
✊ Activist
- founder of AARP & NRTA
- was a volunteer at Jane Addams' Hull House
- The Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology is named for her & is the oldest & largest existing professional school of gerontology
- 1944 retired from teaching to care for her ailing mother
- Her motto was "To serve, not to be served"
- decided to form NRTA after visiting a retired teacher who was living in a chicken coop because inflation & high health care costs had eroded her pension & she couldn't afford decent housing
Born: 1884
Country: USA
Education: University of Chicago BA Philosophy 1903; USC MA 1928 & PhD 1930; Lewis Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) BS 1918
Kristi S. Anseth
⚛️ Biological Engineering
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- Studies natural & synthetic hydrogels & the use of biomaterials to create an extracellular matrix to supply 3-D cells
- Is trying to create a polymer that will change from soft to hard in response to cues such as ultraviolet light & degrade predictably over time
- Looking at tissue engineering of biomaterials for the replacement of cartilage & heart valves; 1st engineer of either sex selected as Howard Hughes Medical Investigator
- Holds 17 patents
Born: 1968
Country: USA
Education: University of North Dakota-Williston-transferred to Purdue University to complete BS in Chemical Engineering, completed 1992; PhD, University of Colorado, 1994; post-doctoral work at MIT & Purdue
Treena Livingston Arinzeh
⚛️ Biomedical Engineering
- Known for research in adult stem cell therapy
- Through Project Reads Program opens up her lab at Columbia University to economically disadvantaged High School students for summer internships
- Founded the 1st Tissue Engineering & Applied Biomaterials Lab at New Jersey Institute of Technology, 2001
- Discovered that mixing stem cells with scaffolding allows regeneration of bone growth & the repair of tissue damage
- Discovered one person's stem cells could be implanted in another persons without causing an adverse immune response
Born: 1970
Country: USA
Education: Rutgers University, BS in Mechanical Engineering, 1992; Johns Hopkins University, MSE in Biological Engineering, 1994; University of Pennsylvania, PhD in Bioengineering, 1999
Frances Hamilton Arnold
⚛️ 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
Ellen Marie Arruda
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- Professor at University of Michigan since 1992
- Hobbies include running, cooking & knitting
- was taught crocheting by her mother & knitting by her mother-in-law
- holds 15 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Pennsylvania State University BS Engineering Science 1985 & MS Engineering Mechanics 1988; MIT PhD Mechanical Engineering 1992
Chieko Asakawa
💻 Computer Science
🔍 Accessibility
- Began losing her sight at age 11 after injuring her optic nerve; completely blind by 14
- Developed Netscape browser plug-in, the IBM Home Reader; it is the most widely used web-to-speech system available
- Has developed a word processor for Braille documents, a digital library for Braille documents, an app for improving accessibility of streaming services, & a system that enables sighted web designers to experience the web as blind people do
- Is working on a suitcase robot to help blind people navigate through complicated terrain; Holds 21 patents
Born: 1958
Country: Japan
Education: Otemon Gakuin University, BA English Literature, 1982; University of Tokyo, PhD in Engineering, 2004
Valerie V. Sheares Ashby
🔬 Chemistry
- holds 8 patents & 2 pending in polymer chemistries critical for biomedical applications
- always wanted to be a teacher
- credits her parents with making her the leader she is today; father was a minister & mother was an English teacher who founded & ran a homeless shelter for 30 years after her retirement
- has 4 mentors she consults when needed
Born: 1966
Country: USA
Education: UNC Chapel Hill BA 1988 & PhD 1994 Chemistry
Estella Atekwana
⚛️ Biogeophysics
⚛️ Tectonphysics
- Grew up in Cameroon
- Switched her major from pre-med to geology after a teacher told her girls weren't suited for field work to prove that teacher wrong
- Is a pioneer in Biogeophysics which uses geophysics to understand the biochemical interactions occurring at contaminated sites
- Is involved in a program to use smartphones with geophysical sensors to potentially gather data for institutions that don't have access to expensive equipment
Born: 1961
Country: Cameroon
Education: 1983, BS in Geology, Howard University; 1986, MS in Geology, Howard University; 1991, PhD in Geophysics, Dalhousie University
Priscilla Auchincloss
⚛️ Physics
🔍 Dance
🔍 Yoga
- wanted to be a ballerina & spent her early 20s in NY studying modern dance & ballet before deciding she would never master pirouettes & began studying physics
- spent 19.5 years on staff at the University of Rochester before studying Continuum & becoming a certified teacher of it in 2010
- now teaches yoga in Rochester NY
Born: 1952
Country: USA
Education: NYU BA Physics & Astronomy 1977; Columbia University PhD Physics 1987
Donna Auguste
💻 Computer Science
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
- At Apple developed Newton personal digital assistant (PDA)
- She & her 4 sisters were raised by her single mother
- As a child she liked to take things (doorbells & appliances) apart to see how they worked
- 1st female African-American to attend the PhD program at Carnegie-Mellon University
- After working at IntelliCorp on AI, she took 2 months off to bicycle through the countryside of Japan
- 1996, co-founded Freshwater Software Inc & took it from a small startup to a nationally recognized multimillion dollar software provider; 2001 sold the company to Mercury Interactive Corporation of California for $147 million
- Retired in 2001 & founded Leave a Little Room Foundation, LLC; it provides housing, electricity & vaccinations to poor & underprivileged communities around the world
- Holds 14 patents
Born: 1958
Country: USA
Education: BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley; PhD in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Wanda Lena Austin
💼 Business Executive
⚛️ Engineering Aerospace
- none
Born: 1954
Country: USA
Education: BA in Mathematics, Franklin & Marshall College, 1975; MA in Systems Engineering & Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, 1975; PhD University of Southern California, 1988
![Photo of Penina "Penny" Axelrad](/women_pictures/Axelrad_Penina "Penny".png)
Penina "Penny" Axelrad
⚛️ Aerospace Engineer
- at MIT was captain of the school fencing team
- has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado since 1992
- 1991 worked for Stanford Telecommunications building receivers which she believes increased her knowledge of GPS
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: MIT SB Aeronautical Engineering 1985 & SM Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering 1986; Stanford University PhD Aeronautics & Astronautics 1991
Virginia Mae Axline
🔍 Psychology
- taught elementary school for several years
- began collaborating with Carl Rogers at Ohio State University
- left her entire estate including future royalties from er books to diocesan child guidance Center (DCGC) in columbus, OH
- 1984 a guardian was appointed to handle her affairs after several strokes & medical issues made her unable to take care of herself
- was considered to be a very private person who was difficult to get to know
- her parents & her only sister were her closest friends until their deaths
Born: 1911
Country: USA
Education: Ohio State University BS English & Elementary Education 1931 & MS Psychology Administration 1940; Columbia University Teachers college PhD Education 1950
Ruzena Bajcsy
🔍 Robotics
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
- Born in Bratislava (now Slovakia); she & her sister were the only survivors of WWII in her immediate family ; they were supported as war orphans by the Red Cross; later raised in orphanages & foster homes
- Known for her contributions to robotics & AI
- 1st female recipient of a PhD in Electrical Engineering in Slovakia
- Founded General Robotics & Active Sensory Perception Lab (GRASP)
- Introduced the idea of active perception in robotics
- Holds 3 patents
Born: 1933
Country: Czechoslovakia
Education: 1957 & 1968, MS & PhD in Electrical Engineering, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava; 1972, PhD in Computer Science, Stanford University
Sara Josephine Baker
⚕️ Public Health
- Known for tracking down Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon) twice
- Decided to study medicine after her father & brother died of typhoid
- 1898, graduated 2nd in her class from NY Infirmary Medical College
- Known as Dr. Joe & wore masculine clothing; joked that her colleagues forgot she was a woman
- Believed the way to keep people from dying from disease was to keep them from falling ill; led to her work in the field of public health
- Invented an infant formula made out of water, calcium carbonate, lactose, & cow's milk
- Educated mothers in the care of infants & the necessity of sanitary conditions to prevent dysentery
- Designed a method of storing silver nitrate used in newborns' eyes in single use vials to prevent contamination & subsequent blindness
- Convinced NYC to license midwives & place doctors & nurses in schools to regularly inspect the students; head lice & trachoma cases were reduced to almost non-existent as a result
- Started school lunch programs
- 1917, became the 1st woman to receive a PhD in Public Health
- 1st woman professional representative to the League of Nations, served on the Health Committee 1922-1924
Born: 1873
Country: USA
Education: 1898, NY Infirmary Medical College; 1917, New York University, PhD, Public Health
Sookie S. Bang
⚕️ Bioremediation
- she & her team mix two common types of soil bacteria, Bacillus pasteurii and Sporosarcina ureae, with sand and “feed” the bacteria a rich solution containing both urea and calcium chloride; after using up the supply of nutrients, the bacteria die, but by that time, the calcium carbonate has crystalized the sand into solid limestone
- when perfected, her process for creating & fixing limestone is expected to be used to restore such monuments as the foundation of the empire State Building & Mt. Rushmore
- was employed at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology beginning in 1985 & held NSF grants there almost continuously from 1995 to 2008
Born: Unknown
Country: Korea
Education: Seoul National University BS & MS Biology, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering 1974; University of California at Davis PhD Microbiology 1981;
Zhenan Bao
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- Born & raised in China
- emigrated to US 1990 to further her education
- lists herself as an American citizen but her date of citizenship is unknown
- has been on staff at Stanford University since 2004
- was Chairman of Stanford's Chemical engineering department from 2018-2022
- worked at Lucent Technology Bell Labs for 9 years before working at Stanford
- was accepted to the PhD program at the University of Chicago before she completed her BA
- her acceptance was based on 2 awards she won as an undergraduate student
- both of her parents were professors at Nanjing University, her mother in Chemistry & father in Physics
Born: 1970
Country: China
Education: Nanjing University Chemistry major, no degree; University of Chicago 1993 MS & 1995 PhD both in Chemistry
Gilda A. Barabino
⚛️ Biomedical Engineering
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- none
Born: 1956
Country: USA
Education: 1978, BS in Chemistry, Xavier University of Louisiana; 1986, PhD in Chemical Engineering. Rice University
Rodica A. Baranescu
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- Engineering professor at University of Illinois at Chicago 2005-2016
- taught at Politehnica University in Bucharest 1964-1978
- emigrated to US 1980 to work for Navistat (now International Truck & engine corporation & was eventually promoted to Chief Engineer for Engine Performance Analysis & managed the Fuels & Lubricants & Engine Group
- 2011 helped establish the Rodica Baranescu Award for Technical & Leadership Excellence awarded by SAE
- holds 2 patents in Romania
Born: 1940
Country: Romania
Education: French Institute of Petroleum BS Mechanical Engineering; Politehnica University of Bucharest MS Mechanical Engineering 1961 & PhD Mechanical Engineering & Thermo Sciences
Cornelia I. Bargmann
🔬 Biochemistry
🔬 Neurobiology
- Appointed by President Obama as co-chairwoman of the advisory commission for the Brain Initiative
- Made a discovery that ultimately led to the breast cancer drug Herceptin
- 1993, conducted experiments that determined worms could smell
- Helped identify the role of Ras in bladder cancer
- Identified SYG-1 a "matchmaker" molecule that directs neurons to form connections with each other during development
Born: 1961
Country: USA
Education: 1981, BA in Biochemistry University of Georgia, 1987; PhD in Biology, MIT
Amira Barkal
⚕️ Medicine
- became interested in cancer research after her grandmother was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, did not respond to treatment but entered a clinical trial that extended her life by 20 years
- has 2 patents pending, 1st analysis of polymorphisms in sirp-alpha for evaluating response to immunotherapy & 2nd compositions & methods for inducing phagocytosis
- discovered CD24 protein as part of her dissertation research
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Oregon state University BS Biochemistry & Biophysics; Stanford University School of Medicine MD 2017, PhD Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine 2021
Helen Blair Bartlett
🔍 Geology
🔍 Mineralogy
🔍 Petrographer
- Known for her contributions to the design of spark plug insulators
- Spent her entire working career at AC Ceramics Research Dept within General Motors
- Pushed gender boundaries within the transportation industry-a traditionally male domain
- Briefly left GM to work on the Manhattan Project
- Was an avid golfer & supporter of science fairs
- 1st female to attain a top technical position at GM (1959)
- Held 7 patents
Born: 1901
Country: USA
Education: Ohio Wesleyan University BS Geology 1927; Ohio State University PhD Mineralogy 1931
Regina Barzilay
💻 Computer Science
- has been teaching & doing research at MIT since 2003
- emigrated to Israel with her parents when she was 20
- diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 which prompted her to focus her research on oncology
Born: 1970
Country: Moldova
Education: Ben Gurion University of the Negev BS 1993 & MS 1997; Columbia University PhD Computer Science 2002; Postdoc at Cornell University 2003
![Photo of Elizabeth "Liz" Ann Bates](/women_pictures/Bates_Elizabeth "Liz" Ann.png)
Elizabeth "Liz" Ann Bates
🔬 Cognitive Science
🔍 Linguistics
- served as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976-1977 and at the National Research Council Institute of Psychology in Rome
- The Elizabeth Bates Graduate Research Fund was established at UCSD in her memory to assist graduate students' research
- died after a 1-year battle with pancreatic cancer
- was on the faculty of the University of colorado 1974-81
Born: 1947
Country: USA
Education: St Louis University BA 1968; University of Chicago MA 1971 & PhD 1974 both in Human Development
Eleanor K. Baum
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
📚 Educator
- was an only child
- parents left Europe during the Holocaust, traveling to Japan & then Canada before settling in NY
- is named after Eleanor Roosevelt
- parents wanted her to be a teacher & would hide articles with themes of "the joys of being a schoolteacher" under her pillow
- was the only girl in her advanced physics and advanced mathematics classes
- one of the engineering schools she applied to would not admit her because it did not have a sufficient ladies' room
- sat on the National Science Foundation's Engineering Advisory Board
- was involved with the Engineering Manpower Commission
- when she became dean at Cooper Union, 5% of the student body was female & she increased this to 40% during her tenure there
- 1995 elected 1st female President of American Society for Engineering Education
- after graduating, worked in the aerospace industry, first at Sperry Rand Corporation and later at General Instrument Corporation
Born: 1940
Country: Vilnius
Education: City College of NY Bs Engineering 1958; Polytechnic Institute of NY (now NYU School of Engineering) MS & PhD 1964 both in Electrical Engineering
Angela M. Belcher
🔬 Materials Science
- has taught at MIT since 2002
- grew up in San antonio Texas
- originally studied abalone shells
- at UC Santa Barbara was able to design her own major at the College of Creative Studies & liked the idea because she doesn't like to follow rules
- has been interested in biology & the origin of life since middle school
- fell in love with molecules while taking a graduate=level biochemistry class as an undergraduate
- built the 1st virus-based battery
- is dyslexic
- holds 43 patents
Born: 1968
Country: USA
Education: UC Santa Barbara BS Creative Studies 1991 & PhD Organic Chemistry 1997
Page 1 of 9