Women
Anna Ella Carroll
🏛️ Politics
🔍 Lobbyist
- 1959, the Maryland state historical society unveiled a monument to Carroll with the words, "Maryland's Most Distinguished Lady. A great humanitarian and close friend of Abraham Lincoln. She conceived the successful Tennessee Campaign and guided the President on his constitutional war powers."
- The epitaph on her grave reads, "A woman rarely gifted; an able and accomplished writer."
- condemned the Emancipation Proclamation and recommended colonization of blacks
- father owned a plantation & was Governor of Maryland 1830-31
- Grandfather Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence
- family was wealthy until the financial panic of 1837
- was the oldest of 8 children & was educated by her father so she could be his aide/secretary
- established a girls school in the family home
- freed her remaining 20 slaves inherited from her father & saw they were immigrated to Canada after the election of Lincoln in 1860
- after 1879 fought with the government to collect $5,000 (approximately $120,474 in 2023 dollars) she claimed they owed her for her wartime publicationsbut never received payment
- was granted a $50 monthly pension for life in 1881 for her war efforts
- was a spokesperson for the Know-Nothing Party
- 1870 claimed she was solely responsible for the Tennessee River Campaign although she had previousl credited riverboat pilot charles M. Scott with the strategy
- 1864 painting of the Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Francis B. Carpenter shows a vacant chair with papers reportedly written by Carroll & is reportedly "a silent nod" to her role as an advisor to Lincoln
- 2010 The Friends of Anna Ella Carroll unveiled a new rendition of Carpenter's painting done by Laura Era depicting Carroll sitting in the chair, it is housed in an Easton MD art gallery
- scholars differ on her importance to the Tennessee River Campaign with some agreeing she devised the plan & was key to its success & others arguing she had no involvement & made the story up because she needed money & this was her way to obtain it from the government
- "The Lost River" is a film about her life
- atage 29 was living in Baltimore & writing press releases for railroad companies
- briefly dated James Buchanan when he was a Senator
- refused marriage proposals from President Willard Fillmore & Lemuel Evans, a 1-time secret service agent assigned to protect Lincoln & subsequent Supreme Court of Texas judge
Born: 1815
Country: USA
Education: Tutored by her father
Rachel Louise Carson
🔬 Marine biology
🔍 Conservation
- none
Born: 1907
Country: USA
Education: 1929, BA Biology, Chatham University; 1932, MS Zoology, Johns Hopkins University
Majora Carter
🔬 Environmental Science
- none
Born: 1966
Country: USA
Education: 1988, BA Wesleyan University; 1997, MFA NYU
Emily Ann Carter
🔬 Physical Chemistry
- was on staff at UCLA 1988-2004, returned 2019
- on staff at Princeton since 2004
- loves theater, math, to read
- took up photography & writing poetry in junior high school
- holds 5 patents
Born: 1960
Country: USA
Education: UC Berkeley BS Chemistry 1982; Caltech PhD Physical Chemistry 1987
Dame Mary Lucy Cartwright
📊 Mathematics
- was a descendant of poet John Donne
- wrote over 100 articles on several mathematical concepts
- 1936 became the Director of Studies in Mathematics at Girton college
- appointed Mistress of Girton 1948
- was a Reader in the Theory of Functions at Cambridge 1958-1968
- after retiring from girton in 1968 became a visiting professor in the US, Mexico, Poland & Wales
- continued her research until well into her 80s
- was school by tutors until she was 11 & was then sent to live with relatives & attended regular school
- originally studied history before turning her focus to mathematics
- never lost her interest in history, wrote several biographical memoires that showed her expertise in history
- loved to travel & visited numerous historical locations like Petra
- at age 96 was 1 of the subjects of a TV documentary called "Our Brilliant Careers"
- was a Red Cross volunteer during WWII
- her hobbies included painting & music
Born: 1900
Country: UK
Education: St. Hugh's College 1st Class Degree in Mathematics 1923; Oxford University PhD Mathematics 1930
Hattie Carwell
⚛️ Physicist
- none
Born: 1948
Country: USA
Education: 1970, BS Chemistry, Bennett College for Women; 1971, MS Health Physics, Rutgers University
Ella Kathleen Casano
💡 Inventor
- diagnosed with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) & required IV transfusions every 6-8 weeks
- ITP is an autoimmune disorder that makes her body destroy its own platelets
- her fear of needles & all the IV equipment inspired her to invent the Medi Teddy
- Medi Teddy has been awarded nonprofit status by the IRS enabling them to accept donations & provide Medi Teddy's to hospitals & pediatric patients for free
- is a world champion rower
- started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $5000 to pay for the 1st run of 500 Medi Teddys & raised more than $20,000 in a week
- was coxswain & represented the United States in the U19 Women's 4+ and U19 Women's 8+ at the U19 World Championships in the summers of 2022 and 2023, respectively
- Medi Teddy comes in two models: a personalized, washable “Bailey” plush with a stretchy mesh rear pouch and a silicone “Hope” bear designed for hospitals to reuse with multiple patients
- enjoys fishing & singing
- after 7+ years of IV therapy her ITP is in remission & she takes a daily oral medication
- holds 2 patents
Born: 2006
Country: USA
Education: Currently a freshman at Stanford University with an expected graduation date of 2028
Aida Casiano-Colon
🔬 Microbiology
- I had difficulty finding anything about her
Born: Unknown
Country: Unknown
Education: 1992 - Postdoctoral Residency in Medical and Public Health Microbiology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY; University of Rochester BS 1981, MS 1985 & PhD 1990 all in Microbiology
Erin Castillo
📚 Education
⚕️ Mental Health
- teaches English to high school students with mild to moderate disabilities in Northern California
- also teaches a peer counseling class & incorporates social & emotional learnings & wellness into all her classes
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Carrie Chapman Catt
✊ Social Reform Activist
- as a child wanted to be a doctor
- father was reluctant to send her to college so he only contributed for part of her tuition requiring her to work to pay the reaining fees
- joined Crescent Literary society in college but only men were allowed to speak expemporaneously at meetings but she demanded the same right & was eventually granted them
- started an all-female debate club & advocated for women's participation in military drills at college subsequently initiated the drills on her own
- was the only female in her college graduating class
- her 1st husband died of typhoid approximately 18 months after they married leaving her a young widow
- became involved in the suffrage movement in the late 1880s
- retired after the passage of the 19th amendment & devoted herself to efforts at peace
- in the late 1880s her views were xenophobic drawing criticism in later years but her views changed when she became involved in suffrage, cmapaigning for the right to vote for all women regardless of color
- was outspoken in her opposition to discrimination in the 1920s to the time of her death
- 1935 the Turkish government issued a stamp to honor her work
- 1936 was honored by President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House for her peace activism
- was a long-time friend of Eleanor roosevelt
- various awards are named after her
- her childhood home in Charles city Iowa is now a museum dedicated to her & the history of the women's suffrage movement & is managed by the National 19th Amendment Society
- numerous plaques & markers across the US honor her
- her estate was bequeathed to Iowa Atate University with the exception of 6 volumes of photographs & some memorabilia that were donated to Bryn Mawr College
- for her 1890 marriage to George W. Catt, she had a prenuptual legal contract allowing her 4 months of free time each year to work exclusively for women's suffrage
- she took off working for suffrage in 1904 to nurse George when he became ill & after he died in 1905, he left her wealthy enough to devote herself to reform activities until she died
- as a child she of 13 she questioned why her mother did not have the same right to vote as her father
- often said she was born a suffragist
- sold some of her sapphire jewelry to help start the League of Women Voters
Born: 1859
Country: USA
Education: Iowa Agriculture College (now Iowa State University) BS General Science 1880
Monika Cechova
⚛️ Biomolecular Engineering
- has been working on Postdoctural research at UC Santa Cruz since 2022
- Speaks Czech, English, German & Slovak
Born: Unknown
Country: Czech Republic
Education: Masaryk University in Brno BS Applied Informatics 2011 & MS Bioinformatics 2013; Penn State University PhD Biology 2020
Maria Constanza Ceruti
🔍 high-altitude archaeology
🔍 anthropologist
🤖 mountaineer
- after receiving her PhD she lived in an adobe house near Pucora de Tilcara (a fortification built approximately 12th century AD by descendants of the Omaguaca people) for 5 years to manage a small museum & better understand village life & its connection to pre-Incan & Incan traditions
- graduated from the University of buenos Aires with perfect grades
- early in her career photographs showing her co-leading an expedition above 21,000 feet were omitted from a publication highlighting the project because "she looked like a teenage girl" & it was believed pictures of her would "make the work look easy." (atlas obscura)
- is of Andean descent & believes mountaineering is in her blood
- for over a decade the Museum of High Mountain Archaeology (MAAM) where the mummies of the Children of Llullaillaco are housed refused to acknowledge her major part in their discovery but now a small sign lists her role in the expedition
- her hobbies are photography, poetry, & learning indigenous languages
Born: 1973
Country: Argentina
Education: University of Buenos Aires BA Anthropology 1996; National University of Cuyo PhD Anthropology 2001
Sara Chambers
💡 Yoga products inventor
💼 Entrepreneur
- began making Iyengar-inspired yoga props in the basement of her home
- Hugger Mugger is an archaic word that means “to conceal”
- was a custom furniture builder
- 1997 took a partner, David Chamberlain but both are now retired
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Harriet M. Chapman
💡 Inventor
- No information was located except for 1 patent
- was living in Philadelphia when patent was issued on December 18, 1877
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier
🔬 Microbiology
🔍 Genetics
- 2020, with Jennifer Doudna won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR/Cas9; the 1st Nobel science prize only awarded to 2 women
- 2018, founded an independent research institute, The Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, in Berlin
- Holds 55 patents
Born: 1968
Country: France
Education: 1995, BSc,MSc & DPhil, Sorbonne University, Pierre & Marie Curie Campus Pasteur Institute, Research PhD
Mary Agnes Chase
🔍 Botany
🔍 Agrostology
- dropped out of school after grammar school to financially help her family
- began her career at USDA as an illustrator but was a Senior Botanist in charge of Systematic Agrostology Dept by the time of her retirement in 1939
- continued to work on her collections 5 or 6 days weekly at the Smithsonian & National Herbarium after her retirement & continued until shortly before her death
- was an active suffragist & participated in demonstrations organized by members of the National Women's Party
- at a demonstration in 1918 protesting President Wilsons failure to fulfill his campaign promise to support women's suffrage was 1 of the women who were arrested & conducted a hunger strike while in custody, she was force fed until her release
- her supervisor at USDA, Hitchcock, was ordered to fire her on the grounds of behavior unbecoming a government employee but he refused saying he could not conduct his research without her vital assistance
- father was an Irish railway worker who was lynched when she was 2
- mother took all 5 children & moved to chicago & changed their last name from Meara to Merrill
- family was again displaced 3 months later as a result of the Great chicago Fire
- grew up in poverty
- Married William Ingraham Chase in 1888 but he died of TB 1 year later & left her in debt
- when looking for funding for their research expeditions, Hitchcock was often given funding while Chase was denied it because she was female & deemed unfit for fieldwork
- she self-funded many of her expeditions & sometimes got funding from women's groups she was a member of
- local female missionaries & female scientists often helped her by providing lodgings & assistance with obtaining supplies & working out logistics
- worked as an illustrator at Chicago's Field Museum under C. F. Millsbaugh for 2 years until he recommended her for a job at USDA
- her home, Casa Contenta, was always open to visiting female botanists
- collected & catalogued over 19,000 species of grasses & 500 new species which she discovered in Brazil
Born: 1869
Country: USA
Education: dropped out of school after grammar school; later took botany classes at University of Chicago & Lewis Institute but never received a degree
Alissa Marie Chavez
💡 Inventor
💼 Entrepreneur
- was raised by a single-mother who ran a child daycare & fostered Alissa's love of children
- is featured in the book Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmesh
- her advertising slogan is “One Child Too Many”
- long-term goal was be a neonatal nurse
- holds 1 patent
- is the youngest Latina to receive a patent
Born: 1997
Country: USA
Education: University of New Mexico 2020 BA Communication & 2022 MA Public Administration
Kalpana Chawla
🔭 Astronautics
🔍 Fluid Dynamics
- none
Born: 1962
Country: India
Education: 1982, BA Aeronautical Engineering, Punjab Engineering College; 1984, MS Aerospace Engineering, University of Texas-Arlington; 1986, MS Aerospace Engineering, 1988, PhD, University of Colorado-Boulder
Briana Kaying Chen
🔬 Neurobiology
- has been a Postdoc researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center since 2022
- was a coxswain of the women's rowing team at MIT
- is passionate about music, needlepoint, & reading
- is a SciSub writer & social media head
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: MIT BS Brain & Cognitive Sciences 2016; Columbia University MA 2018, MPhil 2018 & PhD 2022, all in Neurobiology & Behavior
Anne Chiang
🎬 Thin-film Transistors
🔬 Physical chemistry
- her research and development work on flat panel displays, semiconductor devices, and optical/magnetic recording has been applied industry-wide
- today’s light weight, radiation-free, space- and energy-efficient, portable flat panel display personal computers are a direct result of her work, which also helps to enable the development of today’s high performance, pocket-sized, portable communication systems
- since 2002 a principal of Chiang Consulting, a privately owned company that she formed in Cupertino, California; 12 patents found
Born: 1942
Country: Taiwan
Education: National Taiwan University BS 1964 Physical Chemistry; USC PhD 1969 Physical chemistry
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Julia Carolyn (Nee McWilliams) Child
🔬 Food Sciences
- maternal grandfather was Byron Curtis Weston
- mother was heiress of Weston Paper Co.
- attended boarding school for high school
- played tennis, golf & basketball
- hoped to be a novelist of magazine writer after college
- didn't learn to cook until she met her future husband & they married in 1946
- joined OSS (Office of Strategic Services & forerunner of CIA) in 1942 after she was rejected from the WACs (Women's Army Corps) & US Navy's WAVES for being too tall(was 6'2")
- worked as a top-secret researcher for OSS head General William J. Donovan
- her complete OSS file was declassified in 2008 & is available on line
- her husband Paul worked for OSS & then transferred to the Foreign Service US Information Agency in 1948 & was assigned to Paris
- attended Le Cordon bleu while her husband worked
- diagnised with breast cancer in mid-1960s & had a mastectomy in 1968
- her husband designed her kitchen to accommodate for her height & it was the setting for 3 of her TV shows
- her kitchen is on dispolay at the Smothsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC & her copper pots & pans were added to the display in 2009
- in 2001 she moved to an assisted living home in California & donated her Massachusetts home & office to Smith college
- the College later sold the home & office & used the money to erect a campus center named after her
- there is a hybrid, butter colored rose named after her
- appeared on a 2014 US Postage stamp as part of the "Celebrity Chefs Forever" series
- initially was paid $50 per episode of The French Chef
- carried a large canvas satchel she called the "sacrd bag" that contained cooking utensils she couldn't live without like her pastry cutting wheel, her favorite flour scoop, & her knives among other things & only trusted a few people with its care
- was a member of the Grass Cops in college charged with keeping people off the lawns on campus
- was fired from her first job doing secretarial duties at W. J. Sloane (a home furnishings company) for insubordination over a mix-up with a document
- loved French onion soup & it was her last meal
- loved butter & 753 pounds of it were used on her show "Baking With Julia"
- once attributed her longevity to "red meat & gin"
- took 9 years to perfect the recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" & getting it published
Born: 1912
Country: USA
Education: Smith College BA History 1934; Le Cordon Bleu
Rhonda Childress
🔍 Data Security
🔍 Privacy
- went to college on a full scholarship
- worked at IBM 2 summers during college
- worked at GM, the McDonnell Douglas after college before returning to IBM where she worked for over 30 years
- enjoys working with her hands using tools, perfecting her competition chili recipe, & designing & sewing quilts that are then auctioned off for charities
- is 1 of only 25 female IBM Fellows in the history of IBM
- didn't touch a computer until she got to college
- inhigh school, her father fought for her to be allowed to take shop classes instead of home ec
- is currently Chief Innovation Officer at Kyndryl
- grew up in rural Kentucky
- holds 264 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Kentucky State University BS Computer Science
Mary-Dell Chilton
🔍 Biotechnology
- 1 of the founders of modern plant biotechnology
- Led a research study that produced the 1st transgenic plants-the 1st genetically modified plants
- Has been called "the Queen of Agrobacterium"
- Holds 18 patents
Born: 1939
Country: USA
Education: University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1960 BS, 1967 PhD, Chemisrty; postdoctoral work, University of Washington-Seattle
May Edward Chinn
⚕️ Medicine
- none
Born: 1896
Country: USA
Education: 1921, BS Science, Columbia University s Teacher College; 1926, MD Bellevue Hospital Medical College; 1933, MS Public Health, Columbia University
Gloria Twine Chisum
🔍 Experimental Psychology
- Developed eyewear to protect pilots' eyes in extreme conditions like sharp turns, lightning, or nuclear explosion
- 1st African-American female to join the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
- The town of Twine, OK is named after her grandfather
- Is an expert on visual problems associated with the operation of high-performance aircraft
- Has served as a consultant to all branches of the US Dept of Defense
- Holds 2 patents
Born: 1930
Country: USA
Education: 1951 BS, 1953 MS Psychology, Howard University; 1960 PhD Experimental Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Joanne Chory
🔬 Plant Biology
🔍 Genetics
- is of Lebanese descent
- is 1 of 6 children
- was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2004 & had a brain implant to help regulate her movements
- her early career interest was microbiology
- joined Salk Institute in 1988
- is an adjunct professor at UC San Diego
- holds 12 patents
Born: 1955
Country: USA
Education: Oberlin College AB Biology; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign PhD Microbiology; Postdoc work at Harvard University Medical School
Uma Chowdhry
🔬 Polymer Science
- joined DuPont in 1977 as a research assistant & rose through the company in various positions culminating in her role as Senior VP & Global chief Science & Technology Officer, retiring in 2010
- enjoyed travel, classical music, collecting ceramic art, walking, reading & fusion food
- as a child was determined to win a Nobel Prize
- left India with $8 in her pockets to continue her studies in the US, eventually becoming a citizen
- attended British missionary schools in India
- married for love & against the wishes of her father
- although numerous sources note she holds over 20 patents from her work at DuPont only 1 was located
Born: 1947
Country: India
Education: University of Bombay (now University of Mumbai) BS Physics & Mathematics 1968; Caltech MS Engineering Science 1970; MIT PhD Materials Science 1976
Lady Tennessee Celeste Claflin, Viscountess of Monserrat
💰 Finance
- TBD
Born: 1843, 1844, 1825 or 1846
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Eugenie Clark
🔍 Icthyology
- Known as "The Shark Lady" or Genie
- after a visit to the NY Aquarium in Battery Park at age 9 became so interested in marine animals that she spent subsequent Saturdays there while her mother worked
- Father died when she was 2
- her application to attend graduate school at Columbia University was rejected because the chairman of the department believed she would quit to raise children & not use what she learned
- for 2 summers during college studied at the University of Michigan Biological Station
- carried out research at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla CA (1946-47), American Museum of Natural History in NY (1948-66), Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in MA (1948), & the Lerner Marine Laboratory in Bimini
- after attending a lecture given by Clark, Anne & William H. Vanderbilt built a lab for her in Florida they named Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in 1955
- Sylvia Earle helped her establish a herbarium at Cape Haze & they were good friends until Clark's death
- was on the faculty at NYU in 1966 & became an instructor at the University of Maryland College Park in 1968, officially retiring in 1999 but continued to teach 1 class every semester for several years
- Cape Haze became Mote Marine Lab & she returned there in 2000
- her last dive was in 2014, 1 year before her death
- was married 5 times with 4 ending in divorce & her last husband committing suicide
- several species of fish are named after her including a whale known as Genie's dogfish
- 2022 the US Postal Office issued a Forever Stamp depicting her in diving gear with a whale
- rode on the back of a 50-foot whale shark
- referred to sharks as "the gangsters of the deep"
- 1946 was asked by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to study the sea life of the Philippines but was detained by the FBI because of her Japanese heritage (Mother & step-father were Japanese) & not allowed to go
- while most icthyologists studied & catalogued dead fish she studied live fish in their environments & in the lab, establishing the 1st live shark tanks at Mote
- took her 4 children on various expiditions & taught the all to dive, later taking her grandson with her
- was a favorite teacher at University of Maryland & stooped taking the roll because she always had more attendees than registered students
- while working at Scripps, she & another female researcher were barred from going on overnight trips or going to the Galapagos Islands because they were female
- taught the then Crown Prince Akihito of Japan how to snorkel
- learned to swim before she was 2 years old
- learned to scuba at Scripps
Born: 1922
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BA Zoology 1942; NYU MA 1946 & PhD 1950 both in Zoology
Yvonne Young Clark
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- none
Born: 1929
Country: USA
Education: Boston Latin Academy-2 years of study; 1951, BS Mechanical Engineering, Howard University; 1972, MS Engineering Management, Vanderbilt University
Mamie Phipps Clark
🔍 Social Psychology
- Helped desegregate schools in the US
- She & husband, Kenneth Clark, conducted the famous "doll study"showing a majority of Black children preferred white dolls, classified Black dolls as "bad," & proved segregation gave African-American children a sense of inferiority & exposed internalized racism
- She & Kenneth were the 1st African-Americans to obtain PhDs in psychology from Columbia University
- Attended highly segregated schools including a Catholic elementary school
- Her doll study research was used as evidence in the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education; 1st social science research ever presented as evidence before the Supreme Court
- 1946, founded Northside Center for Child Development in the basement of the apartment building where she lived with a loan of $946 from her father; 1st center to provide therapy for children in Harlem
- 1962, collaborated with Kenneth to establish the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited Program (HARYOU) to provide education & employment opportunities for youth in Harlem
- Served as chairman of a housing company that built apartments in NYC
Born: 1917
Country: USA
Education: 1938, BA Psychology, 1939, MA Psychology, Howard University; 1943, PhD Experimental Psychology, Columbia University
Edith Clarke
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
- 1st woman professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the US (at GE)
- 1st female professor of electrical engineering in the US (at the University of Texas at Austin)
- Invented a graphical calculator in 1919
- 1918, 1st female to earn an electrical engineering degree at MIT
- 1st female to deliver a paper at The American Institute of Electrical Engineering
- 1st female engineer whose professional standing was recognized by Tau Beta Pi
- 1st female fellow at AIEE
- Was orphaned at age 12 & was raised by an older sister
- Worked on the design & construction of the Hoover Dam
- Held 2 patents
Born: 1883
Country: USA
Education: 1908, BA Mathematics & Astronomy, Vassar College; MSc Electrical Engineering, MIT; took engineering clases at Columbia University & University of Wisconsin-Madison but obtained no degree
Elizabeth "Liz" P. Clayborne
⚕️ Medicine
- 2023 NasaClip received at total of $750,000 in start-up investments from Maryland’s Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), an independent entity created by the Maryland General Assembly in 1998 to help support business and economic opportunities across the state
- in high school was the 1st female kicker on an all-male football team
- designed her own major in college
- holds 5 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Duke University BA Biomedics/Medical Ethics & Religion 2005; Case Western Reserve University MD/MA Bioethics/Medical Ethics 2011; George Washington University Emergency Medical Residency 2011-2015
Mary Louise Cleave
⚛️ Environmental Engineer
🔭 Astronaut
- was a veteran of two spaceflights, and first woman to lead the Science Mission Directorate as associate administrator
- started flying at age 14 & earned her pilot’s license before her driver’s license
- was the10th woman to travel into space
- during her two shuttle missions spent more than 10 days in orbit
- became interested in environmental issues during her 2nd space mission when she looked down on the Earth & noticed there were fewer trees, more roads, & dirtier air than during her 1st mission
- retired from NASA in 2007, choosing to engage in volunteer work and encourage young women to join scientific
- was selected as an astronaut in May 1980
- orbited Earth 172 times
- logged 3.94 million miles during her space missions
- originally wanted to be a flight attendant but was too short (5'2")
- 1st "real" assignment as an astronaut was fixing the "head" (bathroom earning her the nickname of “first space plumber” or “sanitary fairy
- ”
Born: 1947
Country: USA
Education: Colorado State University BS Biological Sciences 1969; Utah State University MS Microbial Ecology 1975 & PhD Civil & Environmental Engineering 1979
Terica Clewis
🔬 Data Science
- is an artist and loves to paint portraits for her private art collection
- is a certified Scrum master and a certified UI/UX Designer
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: American Military University BBA 2012 & is a Master's candidate currently
Veuve Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot
🔍 Vintner
- Known as the "Grand Dame of Champagne"
- 1818, credited with producing the 1st known blended rose champagne, adding still red wine
- Widowed at 27, she took over her husband's wine business
- Invented the technique of riddling and the riddling table to get rid of yeast in wine/champagne
- 1st female to run a champagne house built on direct sales
- 1st female recipient of the Legion of Honor
- 1810, bottled the 1st recorded vintage champagne
- 1814, exported the 1st champagne to Russia
- 1818, 1st person to sell champagne in the US
Born: 1777
Country: France
Education: Royal Convent of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames
Elzada Urseba Clover
🔍 Botany
- Grew up on a farm in Nebraska
- became interested in cacti after family moved to Texas in 1925
- was a public school teacher in Nebraska & Texas & the principal of South Mission School a segregated school for Spanish speakers in Texas
- after obtaining her PhD joined the faculty at University of Michigan as a botany instructor in 1935 & was denied a professorship because she was a female until attaining a full professorship in 1960
- was assistant curator of the school's botanical gardens until becoming curator in 1957
- was instrumental in establishing cactus & succulent areas in the gardens initially focusing on specimens of the Colorado Plateau in Utah
- retired from University of Michigan in 1967 & moved to the Rio Grand Valley in Texas
- began her 1st expedition in 1938 at Green River Utah & ended at Lake Mead Arizona
- she & Jotter were expected to cook all meals in addition to helping get the boats down river & collecting plant samples after sunset during that 1st expedition
- overcame rheumatic fever as a child
Born: 1897
Country: USA
Education: Nebraska State Teachers College 1930; University of Michigan MS 1932 & PhD 1935
Jewel Plummer Cobb
🔬 Biology
🔬 cancer researcher
📚 educator
- Discovered how skin cells produce melanin & how they become cancerous
- Created programs to support students interested in pursuing graduate degrees
- She & her mother earned college degrees in the same year
- Obtained funding for the 1st on campus student residence at California State University Fullerton
- Increased the enrollment of women of color in sciences at numerous colleges
- Discovered methotrexate was effective in treating certain skin & lung cancers & childhood leukemia
- 1st Black female appointed to the National Science Board
- Helped form NSF's Committee on Women & Minorities in Science
- 1st Black Dean of Connecticut College
Born: 1924
Country: USA
Education: Talladega College, BA Biology, 1944; New York University, MS 1947, PhD 1950, Cell Physiology
Kim M. Cobb
🔬 Climate Science
- was originally a pre-med student & intended to become a physician
- has appeared on the Showtime documentary "years of Living Dangerously"
- 2022 appointed Director of Institute at Brown for Environment & Society (IBES) an academic hub for scholars exploring the interactions between natural, human & social systems
- was 1 of the lead authors of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report published 2021
- has sailed on numerous oceanographic cruises & caving expeditions in the Borneo rainforests to study climate change
- spent 2 years at CalTech in the Dept of Geological & Planetary Sciences
- joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2004 & served as faculty director of the Global Change Program & ADVANCE professor for diversity, equity, & inclusion for the College of Sciences
- ran cross country in high school & Yale University
- is a licensed & certified scientific diving-SCUBA
Born: 1974
Country: USA
Education: Yale University BA Biology & Geology 1996; UCSD Scripps Institute of Oceanography PhD Oceanography 2022
Elouise Pepion Cobell, Yellow Bird Woman
✊ Tribal Activist
- donated part of her Genius Grant to support her class-action suit
- the Native American Bank is based in Denver, Colorado
- had a piece of paper with the following taped to the back of her computer for her visitors to see, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"
- the 2010 settlement was to be used to compensate individual account holders, buy back fractionated land interests, restore lands to reservations & provided $60 million in scholarship funds for Native Americans & Alaskan Natives named the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund in her honor
- was the great-granddaughter of Mountain Chief one of the legendary leaders of the Blackfeet Nation & she had a painting of him hanging in her office
- was the middle of 9 children growing up on a reservation ranch with no electricity or running water
- attended a 1-room schoolhouse made possible by efforts of her father to build it on the reservation until entering high school
- some sources cite she graduated with a business degree from Montana State University while others indicate she had to drop out to care for her mother who was dying of cancer
- was a former President of the Elvis Presley Fan Club of Montana & in her honor, all the reservation radio station played all Elvis songs the day before her burial & all radios at her funeral were tuned to Elvis songs
- 2 full-sized Elvis cut-outs flanked her casket during her viewing
- a 75-minute documentary "100 Years: One Woman's fight for Justice" tells her life story & achievements & was screened at the 2016 Sante Fe Independent Film Festival & is available on Netflix
- the University of Montana has the Elouise Cobell Land & Culture Institute
- hers was the largest class-action suit ever filed against the US government
- the IIM (Individual Indian Money) Trust was supposed to oversee money obtained from leasing Indian lands for various purposes & provide it to indigenous people but instead it was used for governmental purposes, including paying down the national debt, & records of this were later destroyed
- on the way to her burial at her ranch on the reservation (Blacktail Ranch) the hearse got a flat tire so her casket was transferred to the back of a pick-up, tied down with cargo straps & transported the rest of the way
Born: 1945
Country: USA
Education: Great Falls Business College Business & Accounting; Montana State University
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