Women - Women's Innovations

Elizabeth Cleland Wagner Beasley Reed

🔍 Genetics 📚 Educator

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🔍 Genetics 📚 Educator

american geneticist & one of the 1st scientists to work on Drosophila speciation
Studied congenital disorders & diseases advocating for genetic counseling in connection with family planning
Wrote about sexism towards female scientists
1992, published "American Women in Science Before the Civil War," an attempt to recover the histories of women scientists
Conducted plant research but was told she could not publish her results unless she just used her initials because she was female; 1939 paper was published under the name E.C. Wagner
Was one of the women who contributed to establishing & standardizing processes to study species evolution

Born: 1912

Country: USA

Education: Ohio State University BS Botany 1933 MS Botany 1934 PhD Plant Physiology 1936

Rebecca G. Reed

⚕️ Biological and Health Psychology

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Elsa Reichmanis

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Dorcas Reilly

🔬 Food Sciences

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Kelly Reinhart

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Negar Reiskarimian

⚛️ Electrical engineering 💻 Computer Science

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Sarah Parker Remond

🔍 Abolitionist ⚕️ doctor

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Janet Wood Reno

⚖️ Law

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⚖️ Law

1st female Attorney General (1993-2001)
Established 1st Drug Court in the US in Florida
Pioneered the "Miami Method," a technique for eliciting intimate details from young child abuse victims & inspired the passage of a law allowing them to testify by CCTV
Her mother wrote a weekly home improvement column for the Miami News under a male pseudonym
As a child helped her family churn butter which they sold to make ends meet
When she was 8 the family moved to a home on 21 acres near the Everglades that was completely built by her mother; some of the property was later sold to pay for the higher education of the 4 children
After completing middle school in 1951, she was sent to live with an uncle who was a military judge in Germany for 1 year; travelled in Europe during school breaks

Born: 1938

Country: USA

Education: Cornell University BS Chemistry 1960; Harvard Law School LLB 1963

Fern Naomi Renville

🎨 Arts 🔍 Snow Sculpting

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Brittany A. Sanders Rhodes

📊 Math Education

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Malena rice

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Mary Golda Rice

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1st known Native American female engineer
1 of 40 founding engineers of the Skunk Works at Lockheed Corporation
Contributed to NASA's Interplanetary flight Handbook, Volume 3 (1963) which detailed spacecraft flight paths to Mars & Venus
Spent over 30 years at Lockheed, most at Skunk works
Worked on preliminary design concepts for interplanetary space travel, manned & unmanned earth-orbiting flights, & the earliest studies of orbiting satellites for both civilian & defense purposes
Was fascinated by the stars & took every astronomy class she could
Was the 1st female engineer in the history of Lockheed
Earned a BA in Mathematics at age 20
Helped solve numerous design issues involved with high speed flight & issues of aeroelasticity
Most of her work at Skunk works is still classified
Worked on Polaris reentry vehicle, Poseiden & Trident missiles At age 96, wearing her 1st traditional Cherokee dress, she participated in the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C.; left the museum a $400,000 endowment in her will
Is pictured on the reverse of the 2019 Sacagawea Dollar

Ellen Swallow Richards

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Linda Richards

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Lena Richards

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Rebecca Rae Richards-Kortum

⚛️ Bioengineer

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⚛️ Bioengineer

Founder of Beyond Traditional Borders, a curriculum for undergraduates to turn classroom content into solutions for global health
Originally wanted to be a high school math & science teacher
Specializes in creating new technology to provide health care to vulnerable populations, including methods for new diagnosis of cancers, methods for treating jaundice in newborns, & a bubble continuous positive airway pressure machine for premature babies unable to breathe on their own
Developed a low-cost, battery imaging system that could detect premalignant tissue without a biopsy for people who lack access to early cancer screening options
Her lab works to advance nanotech & molecular imaging in order to develop portable & inexpensive optical imaging systems
With another faculty member at Rice University, created Rice 360 Degrees Institute for Global Health where she developed low-power devices for premature babies in impoverished areas at low-cost; has created devices Pumani CPAP, BiliSpec, & DoseRight
Holds 40 patents (38 found)

Born: 1964

Country: USA

Education: University of Nebraska-Lincoln BS Physics & Mathematics 1985; MIT MA Physics 1987 & PhD Medical Physics 1990

Gloria Richardson

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Mary Ellen Richmond

🔍 Social Work

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Marilyn Ricketts

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Sally Ride

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Jane Rigby

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Mary Isabelle Riggin

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Mary I. Riggins

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Isabel Hampton Robb

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Macie Roberts

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Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson

🔬 Chemistry ✍️ Anthropologist Author 🏛️ Political Activist

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Julia Hall Bowman Robinson

📊 Mathematics

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📊 Mathematics

1st female president of the American Mathematical Society
1st female mathematician elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (1975)
Is best known for her work on decision problems & Hilbert's 10th problem
At age 9 was diagnosed with scarlet fever followed by rheumatic fever; missed 2 years of school; was privately tutored when recovered & completed the 5th through 8th grade curriculum in 1 year
Her father committed suicide in 1937 due to financial problems
Entered college at age 16
1984, diagnosed with leukemia
Made significant contributions to game theory

Born: 1919

Country: USA

Education: UC Berkeley BA 1940 MA 1941 PhD 1948 all in Mathematics

Laura Robinson

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Sibyl M. Rock

🔬 Chemistry

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Dorothy Rodgers

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Srebra Rodopska

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Helen Rodriguez-Trias

🔍 Pediatrics ⚕️ Public Health

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🔍 Pediatrics ⚕️ Public Health

Was a public health expert & women's rights activist
1st Latina Director of the American Public Health Association
Fought for reproductive rights, worked with women with HIV, & joined the effort to stop sterilization abuse
Experienced racism & discrimination after moving to NY at age 10; placed in a class for children with learning disabilities until she participated in a poem recital & was then transferred to a gifted class
Began her academic education in Puerto Rico in 1948; received her MD in 1960 at age 31
while at University, became involved with the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, campaigning for freedom of speech & Puerto Rican independence
Established the 1st center for the care of newborns in Puerto Rico; decreased the death rate for newborns by 50% within 3 years
Was an advocate for free abortions, widely available birth control for poor women, & the stoppage of non-consensual abortions

Born: 1929

Country: USA

Education: University of Puerto Rico BA 1957 MD 1960

Emily Warren Roebling

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Gertrude Rogallo

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Corinna Thatcher Rogers

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Sharon Rogone

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Sharon Rogone

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Hazelle nee Hedges Rollins

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Nancy Grace Roman

🔭 Astronomy

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🔭 Astronomy

Was the 1st female executive at NASA (Chief of Astronomy, 1960s through 1970s)
Known as "The Mother of the Hubble" because she was instrumental in making the Hubble possible
Created NASA's space astronomy program
At age 11, formed an astronomy club that met once weekly, learning astronomy from available books
In 1950 wrote the 3 top 100 papers in a year with over 3,000 publications Discovered stars composed of hydrogen & helium move faster than stars made of other, heavier elements & not all stars that were common were the same age
1954, went to work at the Naval Research Lab in the new field of radio astronomy
Pioneered the use of radio astronomy in geodetic work
Was the 1st civilian to visit Armenia after the start of the Cold War in 1956 to speak at the dedication of the Byurakan Observatory
Oversaw NASA's astronomy missions
Retired after 21 years at NASA in 1979 in part to care for her elderly mother; took FORTRAN classes & became a consultant for ORI, Inc 1980-1988
Returned to NASA as head of Astronomical Data Center at Goddard Space Flight Center in 1995 & was there 2 years; then taught another 3 years
Spent 10 years recording astronomical textbooks for Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic
Was discouraged from going into science by people around her; a high school guidance counselor sneered at her when she requested to take a 2nd year of algebra instead of Latin & said, "What kind of lady would take math instead of Latin?"

Born: 1925

Country: USA

Education: Swarthmore College BS Astronomy 1946; University of chicago PhD Astronomy 1949

Teresa Romero

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