Women - Women's Innovations

Dawn Jeannine Wright

🔍 Oceanography 🔍 Geography

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🔍 Oceanography 🔍 Geography

Chief scientist at Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
Played a key role in creating the 1st Geographic Information System (GIS) data model for the oceans
Led the team that created Ecological Marine Units (EMUs), a 3-D digital ocean that creates better understanding of marine environments
1991, 1st Black woman to dive to the ocean floor in Alvin, a deep-sea submersible vehicle
Known as Deep Sea Dawn
2022, 1st & only Black person to dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, & to successfully operate a sidescan sonar at full-ocean depth
Grew up on Maui
2018, appeared in Tribeca Film Festival short film series "Let Science Speak"

Born: Unknown

Country: USA

Education: Wheaton college BS Geology 1983; Texas A & M University MS Oceanography 1986; UC Santa Barbara PhD Physical Geography & Marine Geology 1994

Jane Cooke Wright

🔍 Oncology

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🔍 Oncology

Pioneering cancer researcher & surgeon known for her contribution to chemotherapy
Credited with developing the technique of using human tissue culture rather than lab mice to test the effects of potential drugs on cancer cells
Pioneered the use of Methotrexate to treat breast & skin cancer
Known as "The Mother of Chemotherapy"
Paternal grandfather was born into slavery but graduated from medical school before dying when her father was 4
In school at Fieldstone School was captain of the swim team & yearbook art editor
Her father founded Harlem Hospital Cancer Research Center; 1949, she joined him working there & ultimately replaced him as Director when he died in 1952
Developed a non-surgical method to deliver potent drugs to tumors located deep within the body such as the liver & spleen
1964, only female among 7 doctors who helped found the American Society for Clinical Oncology
Enjoyed sailing, water coloring, solving puzzles, & reading mysteries

Born: 1919

Country: USA

Education: Smith College BA 1942; NY Medical College MD 1945

Katharine Wright

🔍 Aeronautics

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Chien-Shiung Wu

⚛️ Physics

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⚛️ Physics

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

Born: 1912

Country: China

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

Margaret Wu

📊 Statistics 🔍 Psychometrics

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Sau Lan Wu

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Reagan Wytsalucy

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Peisu Xia

💻 Computer Science

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Ellen Xu

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Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

⚛️ Medical Physics

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⚛️ Medical Physics

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

Born: 1921

Country: USA

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

Jeanny Yao

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Josephine Silone Yates

🔬 Chemistry

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Jennifer Yates

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Janet Louise Yellen

💰 Economics

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💰 Economics

Born & raised in Brooklyn, NY
78th US Secretary of the Treasury & 1st female to hold the position (2021)
Family is from Sokoliew, Podlaski a small town approximately 50 miles outside of Warsaw; nearly its entire Jewish population, including many of her relatives, were deported or murdered during the Holocaust
In high school was an honor society member & participated in booster, psychology, & history clubs; was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper & valedictorian of her class; school tradition called for the editor-in-chief to interview the valedictorian so she interviewed herself in the 3rd person
Her academic career focused on the analysis of the mechanisms of unemployment & labor markets, monetary & fiscal policies, & international trade
While at the Federal Reserve, preferred to be referred to as "chair" a gender neutral term as opposed to chairman or chairwoman

Born: 1946

Country: USA

Education: Brown University BA Econommics 1967; Yale University MA & PhD Economics 1971