Women
![Photo of Harriet Elizabeth "Libby" Brown](/women_pictures/Brown_Harriet Elizabeth "Libby".png)
Harriet Elizabeth "Libby" Brown
📚 Educator
✊ Civil Rights Pioneer
- worked as a teacher in Calvert County Public Schools & was promoted to Principal for 0ver 30 years
- filed her suit against the Board of education after learning she was earning $600 monthly & her White counterparts with the same experience, education & duties were earning $1,100, the suit cited this as a violation of the 14th Amendment
- the intersection of Route 2 & Pushaw Station road where the original school she taught at was located bears a historical marker commemorating her suit against the Board of Education
- a community Center in Prince Frederick county bears her name
- enjoyed the compapy of her sister & fellow teacher & Principal, Regina Brown, & the 2 enjoyed traveling, taking a yearly trip together, following sports, going out with friends, & being active in their communities
Born: 1907
Country: USA
Education: Morgan State University BS Education; University of Maryland M ED
Rachel Fuller Brown
🔬 Organic Chemistry
🔍 Bacteriology
- Worked with Elizabeth Lee Hazen long-distance to develop the 1st useful antifungal antibiotic, nystatin
- Nystatin cures a variety of fungal infections, has been used to combat Dutch Elm Disease, & to restore artwork damaged by water & mold
- Henriette F. Dexter, a friend of her grandmother's, saw she was determined to go to college & paid for her to attend Mt. Holyoke
- Hazen (in NYC) cultured organisms found in soil & tested them to fight against fungi; if she got a positive reaction she would send it to Brown (in Albany, NY) in mason jars; Brown would isolate the active ingredient in the culture; they tested hundreds of samples before finding nystatin
- Brown & Hazen discovered 2 additional antibiotics-phalmycin & capacidin
- Both donated all the money from their drug discoveries (approx $13.4 million); half was used by Research Corporation to fund grants for scientific study & the other half went to support the Brown-Hazen Fund
- 1975, they were the 1st women to receive the American Institute of Chemists' Chemical Pioneer Award
- The Brown-Hazen Fund supported training & research in biomedical sciences & encouraged women to take up careers in science
- She found a cheaper, faster screening test for syphilis
- She identified 40 types of pneumonia & created anti-serums for all of them
- Held 2 patents
Born: 1898
Country: USA
Education: 1920, Mount Holyoke College, BA Chemistry & History; MS Organic Chemistry, PhD, 1926, University of Chicago
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
Norma Brown
💡 Inventor
⚕️ Nursing
- Daughter of Marie Van Brittan Brown
- Was also a nurse & inventor like her mother
- No information on her personal life could be found
- Held 10 patents for: Interactive furniture for dieters; safety tree stand; combination tampon & menstrual pad; avalanche & hypothermia protection system; disposable adhering beverage container cover; bra barrier device; ladder including storage compartment; sensor shoe for monitoring the condition of the foot; safety walker for a baby; & female security device
Born: 1926
Country: USA
Education: unknown
Marjorie Lee Brown
📊 Mathematics educator
- none
Born: 1914
Country: USA
Education: BS Mathematics, Howard University, 1935; MA Mathematics 1939, PhD Mathematics, University of Michigan
Dorothy Lavinia Brown
⚕️ Medical Surgery
- none
Born: 1919
Country: USA
Education: 1941, BA Bennet College; 1948, Meharry Medical School, MD
Marie Van Brittan Brown
💡 Inventor
⚕️ Nursing
- Was a nurse
- With husband, Albert Brown an electronics technician, received a patent for a video home security system in 1969
- Born in Jamaica Queens, NY & remained there her entire life
- She & her husband had irregular working hours & she was often home alone with her 2 children; the crime rate in her neighborhood was high & police response time was slow & long; she & her husband came up with their security system for her protection
- Their system was the 1st CCTV security system
- She was 43 when she patented her invention
- Little information was located about her personal life
Born: 1922
Country: USA
Education: Harrison College; DeVry University; University of Phoenix
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
Marilyn Ann Brown
🔍 Energy
🔍 Climate Control Policy
- has been on staff at Georgia Tech since 2006
- worked at Oak Ridge National Lab 22 years
- according to President Clinton, her work provided the scientific justification for signing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Rutgers University BA Political Science; University of Massachusetts M.R.P. Regional Planning; Ohio State University PhD Geography
Beth Anne Brown
⚛️ Astrophysics
- 1st African-American female recipient of a PhD in Astronomy from University of Michigan
- as a graduate student at University of Michigan developed a popular course called Naked Eye Astronomy which is still taught
- grew up watching Star Trek & Star Wars which motivated her to want to be an astronaut
- decided to study astronomy after a classfield trip to an observatory where she observed the Ring Nebula
- grew up in roanoke VA
- played piccolo in the Howard University marching band
- as an undergraduate participated in 2 internships at NASA
- her near-sightedness & dislike of cramped places precluded her from persuing her desire to be an astronaut
- represented NASA in TV interviews, developed a website for the public on Multiwavelength Milky Way & participated in the NASA Administrator's Fellowship Project (NAFP)
- The American Astronomical society has an award in her honor
- she is feature in the book "Women of Goddard: Careers in Science, Technology, engineering & Mathematics"
- after her sudden death from a pulmonary embulism her mother established the Dr. Beth A. Brown Science Foundation to provide scholarships to graduating high school seniors who pursue degrees in astronomy or physics
- 2012 her alma mater, William Fleming High School, named its science & pre-engineering hall in her honor
- loved to sing & read
Born: 1969
Country: USA
Education: Howard University BS Astrophysics 1991; University of Michigan MS 1994 & PhD 1998 both in Astronomy
Jeannette Elizabeth Brown
🔬 Organic Chemistry
- Had TB as a child
- Was a research chemist at CIBA Pharmaceutical company working on drug development targeting TB & coccidiosis
- Began working at Merck 1969; co-author of 15 publications. obtained 1 patent & contributed to 5 others while there
- Helped develop cilastatin sodium leading to the creation of Primaxin which is used to treat severe internal infections, diseases caused by flesh-eating bacteria, & some types of pneumonia
- Spent 36 years in research before switching to a career as an educator
- Has written 2 books profiling African-American women in chemistry
Born: 1934
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BS Chemistry 1956; University of Minnesota MS Organic Chemistry 1958
Harriet A. Brown
🔍 Dressmaking
💡 Inventor
- obtained the only patent for putting work together
- the goal of her college was for girls of ability and taste, who are now engaged in stores, workshops and kitchens, may find employment for which they are better adapted
Born: 1847 or 1844
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Willa Beatrice Brown Chappell
🔍 Aviator
- taught aeronatics & business classes in high school from 1962 until retiring in 1971
- the creation of the Tuskegee Airmen has been credited to her training efforts
- over 200 men she trained latter became Tuskegee Airmen
- tried to join Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during WWII but was rejected because she was Blak
- worked briefly as a teacher after college graduation before relocating to Chicago where she held various secretarial jobs before working as a social worker
- returned to teaching 1962 & taught until retiring in 1971
- was inspired by Bessie Coleman & organized flyovers & fower drops to her grave in Lincoln Cemetery outside of Chicago
- Willa is buried in the same cemetery
- 1st female enrolled at curtis-Wright Aeronautical University & had to threaten to sue them for discrimination beore they admitted her
- learned how to fly at Harlem Field on the south side of Chicago
- after marrying Rev. J.H. Chappell (her 3rd marriage) in 1955 she became very active in the West side Community
Born: 1906
Country: USA
Education: Curtis-Wright Aeronautical University; Indiana State Teachers college BA 1927; Northwestern University MBA 1937
Grace Brush
🔍 Paleoecology
- grew up in a rural area in Nova Scotia
- early education was a combination of attendance at a small rural school where the students numbered 20 at most, correspondence courses, and instruction from her parents
- at age 13 had completed 10th grade & completed all education available in the area so she was sent to a boarding school 25 miles away
- set up a palynology (the study of spores and pollen of plants) lab in Canada but moved to the US shortly after to continue her education at the University of Illinois
- came to Johns Hopkins in 1970 as a research scientist & got her first tenured position there in 1990
Born: 1931
Country: Nova Scotia
Education: St. Francis Xavier University BA Economics 1949; University of Illinois MS Botany 1951; Harvard University PhD Paleobotany 1956
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Margaret (nee Haverkam) Bryan
🔭 Astronomy
⚛️ Physics
🔍 Philosopher
📚 Educator
- little was known about her until research conducted by Gregory Girolami in 2023
- had two daughters
- ran a boarding school 1791-1816
- ran a school & taught in several locations in England from 1791 to 1809
- her 1st book had a portrait of herself and two daughters as a frontispiece, the only known image of the 3 of them together
- believed that science was intertwined with religion and that God had granted humans with the intellect needed to study and appreciate science
Born: possibly 1757 (baptism 1759)
Country: UK
Education: Unknown
Kimberly Bryant
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
🔍 Biotechnology
Born: 1967
Country: USA
Education: BE Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 1989
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck
✍️ 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
Linda Brown Buck
🔬 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
Sarah Buckel
🎨 Graphic Arts
- her dad was the chief operating officer of MagnaCard, which manufactured magnets that she used for her invention
- has 1 patent pending
- had over $! million in sales the 1st year
Born: 1992
Country: USA
Education: Indiana Wesleyan University 2014
Elizabeth Buckley
💡 Inventor
- I have no idea how this woman ended up on the database because I can't find anything out about her except she reportedly invented a sheet iron shovel inn 1870 but no record of it was found
Born: Unknown
Country: Unknown
Education: Unknown
![Photo of Elizabeth "Betty" Bugie Gregory](/women_pictures/Bugie Gregory_Elizabeth "Betty".png)
Elizabeth "Betty" Bugie Gregory
🔬 Microbiology
- when the team that discovered streptomycin applied for the patent, they left her name off the application because they believed she would get married & have a family some day so it wouldn’t be important for her to get the recognition she deserved
- was eventually awarded 0.2% of the royalties for streptomycin
- Waksman took full credit for the discovery of Streptomycin & won a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1952 for it
- after raising her daughters she returned to get a graduation degree in library sciences
Born: 1920
Country: USA
Education: NJ College for Women (now Douglass Residential College) BS Microbiology; Rutgers University MS Microbiology
![Photo of Elizabeth "Betty" Lou Flanagan Bumpers](/women_pictures/Bumpers_Elizabeth "Betty" Lou Flanagan.png)
Elizabeth "Betty" Lou Flanagan Bumpers
🔍 Immunization Advocate
- 1st lady of Arkansas 1971-75
- was an elementary school art teacher
- after her husband, Dale, became Governor of Arkansas she focused on the well-being of children & families initiating the Every child by 74 campaign to increase the level of childhood vaccinations in Arkansas
- vaccine rates went from one of the nation's lowest to one of the highest & the CDC adopted her model as the national model
- the NIH Vaccine Research Center was named after her & her husband
- moved to DC after her husband was elected Senator from Arkansas
- had a talent for making hats
- Every Child by 2 is now Vaccinate Your Family
Born: 1925
Country: USA
Education: Iowa State University; School of he Art Institute of Chicago; University of Arkansas in Fayetteville
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
Selma Hortense Burke
🔍 Sculpture
- was a member of the Harlem Renaissance
- 7th of 10 children born to her parents
- father encouraged her art pursuits but he died when she was 12 & her mother thought she needed a more practical career like nursing
- moved to New York city in the late 1920s & was a private nurse for Amelia Waring heiress to the Otis Elevator empire
- Waring introduced her to the art & culture of New York & became her art patron
- she became a full-time sculptress & art teacher after Waring's death
- received 2 scholarships which enabled her to go to Paris & Vienna where she studied with the likes of Aristide Maillot & met Henri Matisse who encouraged her artistic endeavors
- worked as a body model to pay for her art classes at Sarah Lawrence College
- had a romantic relationship with Claude McKay, a poet & novelist of the Harlem Renaissance but sources vary as to whether or not they were married, with some sources saying they were married twice
- her last sculpture was a 9-foot one of Martin Luther King Junior completed in 1980 & now on display at Marshall Park in Charlotte North Carolina
- her works are in many museums including Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winston-Salem State University, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Mooresville Public Library, & Spelman College
- Black children were banned from the pubic library in her hometown of Mooresville NC so she agreed to donate a bust of a local doctor to the library is they lifted the ban & they accepted
- she attended a 1-room segregated school house as a child
- her 3.5x2.5 foot plaque of FDR that was the inspiration (though many believe it was the source she was never credited with) for his profile on the dime remains hanging in the Recorder of Deeds Building where it was unveiled by President Truman in 1945
Born: 1900
Country: USA
Education: Slater Industrial & Normal School (later Winston-Salem State University) BA 1922; St. Agnes Training School for Nurses RN 1924; Sarah Lawrence College Art classes; Columbia University MFA 1941
Tarana Burke
✊ activist
💼 business executive
- Started MeToo Movement in 2006
- Is a prominent activist for racial, economic, & gender equality
- The goal of MeToo is to empower women to stand up for themselves
- Was raped & sexually assaulted as a child & teenager
- Was a consultant of 2014 movie, Selma
- Senior Director of Girls for Gender Equity in Brooklyn, NY
Born: 1973
Country: USA
Education: Alabama State University, transferred to Auburn University, BA
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
Susan Burton
✊ Activist Criminal Justice Reform Movement
- her 5-year-old son was killed after being hit by an off-duty policeman in 1982 & she turned to alcohol & drugs to relieve her grief falling into a cycle of incarceration that lasted almost 20 years
- while being released from her 6th prison sentence a guard told her he would be seeing her again soon & it motivated her to prove him wrong
- at her website (beingsusanburton.com) one can request a free copy of her memoir "Becoming Ms Burton" be sent to an inmate for free
- was always released with $200 ($50 of which was spent to return to L.A.), no ID or social Security card, or a place to live, making it almost impossible to make changes in her life without necessary resources
- gave up drugs alcohol after completing treatment at CLARE Foundation in Santa Monica in 1997
- saved enough money to purchase a house in South Los Angeles in 1998 & convinced 10 other ex-inmates to live with her
- received grants & was able to incorporate by 2000
- 75% of the women in her program stay drug-free & remain out of prison for at least 18 months
- August 2017 California Gov. Gavin Newsom granted her a pardon
- she has mentored women who have established similar programs in 2 cities
- after training with SAFE participants can receive grants of $50,000 to establish homes modelled after A New Way of Life (ANWOL)
- SAFE Network now has 38 homes in the US & 3 in Africa
- the annual cost to house a woman in a California prison is $75,000 as opposed to the $16,000 annual cost at ANWOL
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: LA Southwest College
Ilene Busch-Vishniac
⚛️ Mechanical Engineer
🔍 University Administrator
💡 Inventor
- served as Dean of the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from 1998 to 2003
- Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at McMaster University from 2007 to 2012
- President of the University of Saskatchewan from 2012 to 2014
- 2018-2022was Chief Innovation Officer at Sonavi Labs (a start-up company that builds devices that can diagnose disease simply by the analysis of body sounds, such as those from the lungs)
- has written research papers for the ASME on matters related to tribology
- 2014was terminated from the University of Saskatchewan, sued them in 2015 & settled out of Court 2019
- 2015 began as a consultant for BeoGrin consulting
- parents wanted her to be a lawyer but she was a music major & studied piano at the Eastman School of Music while taking academic classes at the University of Rochester
- 1982-88 taught at the University of Texas at Austin
- 2003-2005 was President of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA); is an authority on electromechanical sensors and actuators
- holds 11 patents
Born: 1955
Country: USA
Education: University of Rochester BS Physics & BA Mathematics 1976; MIT MS 1978 & PhD 1981 both in Mechanical Engineering
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
Mary Whiton Calkins
🔍 Psychology
🔍 Philosophy
- believed the conscious self should be the primary focus of psychology
- was originally a teacher of Greek upon getting hired at Wellesley college in 1887 but was eventually promoted to professor & taught philosophy & psychology until retiring in 1929
- also spent 3 years studying at Harvard as a "guest" but was never admitted as a student because she was female
- studied under Henry James, Josiah Royce, Edmund Sanford & Hugo Munsterberg at Harvard & completed all requirements for a PhD, including passing a secretly held orals exam, the Harvard Corporation refused to grant her the degree because she was female
- attempts to have her granted a posthumous PhD continue to fail
- in 1902 she & 3 other women were offered PhDs from Radcliffe, while the 3 other women accepted, she declined the offer
- was the 1st female President of the American Psychological Association & the American Philosophical Association
- is considered 1 of the most important 1st-generation American psychologist while most know her only as the woman who Harvard refused to grant a PhD
- was the eldest of 5 children born to her parents & was close to them, living in the family home (with the exception of the time she spent at Smith College) until her death
- was trained in experimental laboratory procedures by Edmund Sanford of Clark University & he helped her set up herlab at Wellesley in 1891, the lab was burned to the ground in 1914 but was subsequently rebuilt
- it was the 1st lab of its kind established at a women's college
- her autobiography relates the struggles she faced in her field because she was a female and thanked those who like Hugo Munsterberg "swung the Laboratory doors" open to her without hesitation
- was the 1st femalememberof the British Psychological Association
- was influenced by Josiah Royce's theory that humans define themselves through interpersonal communication
- Edward B. Titchener claimed credit for the development of her paired-associate technique which she developed as her PhD thesis while at Harvard
Born: 1863
Country: USA
Education: Smith College BA Classics & Philosophy 1885; Harvard University
Nickie G. Campbell
💡 Inventor
- donated one of the prototype Ansa Baby Bottles to MOMA where it is on display
- is the design partner for daughter Ryan's company Zuzii launched in 2009 it offers American handcrafted leather and suede styles of shoes for babies and toddlers
- she & husband William invented the Ansa Baby Bottle to allow their son to get a better grip on his bottle
- holds 5 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Alexa Irene Canady
🔍 Pediatric Neurosurgery
- none
Born: 1950
Country: USA
Education: 1971, MA Zoology, 1975, MD. University of Michigan
Annie Jump Cannon
🔭 Astronomy
- Known as the "census taker of the skies"
- Classified approx 350,000 stars manually
- Was approx 30 years old when she contracted scarlet fever that left her deaf in 1893
- discovered approx 300 variable stars, 5 novas, and 1 binary spectroscopic
- 1892, travelled through Europe taking photos; some were published in a pamphlet called "In the Footsteps of Columbus" & were distributed at the Chicago World's Expo of 1893 as souvenirs
- By 1913 was able to classify 200 stars an hour; could classify 3 stars a minute just by looking at their spectral patterns &, if using a magnifying glass, could classify stars down to the 9th magnitude, around 16 times faster than the human eye can see
- 1922, spent 6 months in Arequipa, Peru to photograph stars in the southern hemisphere
- 1925, 1st woman recipient of an honorary doctorate from Oxford University
- 1931, 1st female recipient of the Henry Draper Medal
- With Edward C. Pickering created the Harvard Classification Scheme
- Developed the mnemonic "Oh! Be a Fine Girl-Kiss Me" used by students to memorize the spectral classification of stars
- 1922, the International Astronomical Union adopted her stellar classification system with minor changes & it is still used today
Born: 1863
Country: USA
Education: 1884 BA, 1907 MA, Physics & Astronomy, Wellesley College; 1898, Astronomy classes, Radcliffe College
Carolyn Luetta Cannon-Alfred
🔍 Pharmacology
- none
Born: 1934
Country: USA
Education: 1954, BS University of Toledo; 1957, MS Howard University; 1961, PhD Pharmacology, Georgetown University
Barbara Canright
📊 Mathematics
- 1st human computer hired by JPL in 1939
- had to resign in 1943 when she was pregnant with her 1st child because there was no such thing as maternity leave
- little is known of her life after resigning from JPL except she was a full-time mother raising 4 children
- she & co-workers Melba Nead, Virginia Prettyman & Macie Roberts were dubbed "the rocket girls" in 1942
- is the subject of the 1st chapter of Nathalia Holt's book "Rise of the Rocket girls: the women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars" published in 2016
Born: 1919
Country: USA
Education: Math classes at Miami University of Ohio; Occidental College 1940
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
Mary Pamellia Carpenter Hooper
💡 Inventor
📚 Educator
- little is know about her life outside of her prolific inventing career
- lived in Buffalo NY with her parents & 6 siblings according to the 1855 census
- 1870-72 lived in San Francisco & worked as a teacher
- her patents are under the following names: Mary P. Carpenter, Mary P.C. Hooper & M.P.C. Hooper
- held 18 patents
Born: 1840
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Emma Perry Carr
🔬 Physical Organic Chemistry
🔍 Spectroscopist
📚 Educator
- Father & Grandfather were country doctors who were advocates of education for all
- taught & did her research at Mount Holyoke College from 1910 to 1946, was chairman of the chemistry Dept from 1913 until her retiring & made it possibly the best research lab facility in the nation
- the lab was renamed after her in 1955
- was the 3rd of 5 siblings
- traveled to Ireland & Germany to study innovative techniques of ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy
- 1944 was a visiting professor & taught at the University of Mexico
Born: 1880
Country: USA
Education: attended Ohio State University for 1 year; attended Mt. Holyoke college for 2 years; University of Chicago BS Physical Chemistry 1905 & PhD Physical Organic chemistry 1910
Elizabeth Jean Carroll
✍️ Journalism
- grew up in a red brick schoolhouse in Indiana
- 1963 crowned Miss Indiana University
- 1964 crowned Miss Cheerleader USA
- her column in Elle "Ask E. Jean" gave advice on sex, aired her belief that a woman should never structureher life around a man & showed compassion for writers who were in difficult life situations
- was fire from Elle (in her opinion) "because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks, & dragged me through the mud." (wikipedia)
Born: 1943
Country: USA
Education: Indiana University Bloomington BA
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