👩🏻‍🔬👩🏽‍💻📡 Remarkable Women in Science

[Dossier]

Remarkable Women in Science

There are so many extraordinary women scientists in all fields of knowledge. Here are some of the scientists who inspire me most:

Frances Arnold (1956, US) - Chemical engineer and 2018 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry “for the directed evolution of enzymes.”

“Science, like all human endeavors, is evolutionary. We build by adding to and recombining what is already there.” - Frances Arnold

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

"All those experiences made me who I am." From being a taxi driver to becoming a #NobelPrize laureate - 2018 chemistry laureate Frances Arnold describes how a diversity of experiences shapes you as a human being.

Andrea Ghez (1965, USA) - Astrophysicist, Nobel Prize Laureate in 2020, “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

2020 physics laureate Andrea Ghez: then and now. As a young girl, Ghez loved mathematics and all types of puzzles. She would grow up to become an astronomer proving that something massive, most likely a black hole, is lurking at the center of our Milky Way. #WomeninScience

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

"I think it's interesting when things don't work because that's the path to discovery." Physics laureate Andrea Ghez on how the path to discovery is often tough and messy.

Donna Strickland (1959, Canada) - Optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers, and a 2018 Nobel Prize laureate in Physics with Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.”

🎧 Listen: Nobel laureate Donna Strickland talks lasers and gender

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

"Marie Curie is in a class all of her own." In her Nobel Prize banquet speech Donna Strickland paid tribute to two other pioneering physicists - Marie Skłodowska Curie and Maria Goeppert Mayer. Which #WomeninScience inspire you?

Jennifer Doudna (1964, USA) & Emmanuelle Charpentier (1968, France) - Co-discoverers of the CRISPR/CAS9 genome editing system and 2020 Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry

📚 The Code Breaker. Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race - By Walter Isaacson

Katalin Karikó (1955, Hungary) & Özlem Türeci (1967, Germany) - Co-developers of the mRNA Covid vaccine

Women in science are making a difference during the pandemic

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943, Northern Irland) - Astrophysicist and Breakthrough Prize winner, who discovered the first pulsar while she was a graduate student at the University of Cambridge in 1967. Her male supervisor received the Nobel Prize.

Meet the Woman Who Found the Most Useful Stars in the Universe

Michelle Simmons (1967, Australia) - A Scientia Professor of Quantum Physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of New South Wales, Australia who has pioneered unique technologies internationally to build electronic devices in silicon at the atomic scale, including the world's smallest transistor, the narrowest conducting wires, 3D atomic electronics, and the first two-qubit gate using atom-based qubits in silicon. She is also the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology

‘You just cannot stop’: Quantum computing becomes a reality

UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳😷 @UNESCO

We need more women scientists because they: 🔬 laid the foundation to understand the structure of DNA 🔭 helped us better understand the universe 🎆 broke the sound barrier AND gender barriers! On #WomenInScience Day, celebrate the pioneering women who dared to discover 💪

Up-And-Coming Scientists:

Dr. Eleni Antoniadou - A multidisciplinary researcher in Regenerative Medicine, Bioastronautics, and Artificial Intelligence(AI) research.

Anika Chebrolu - A young scientist who has discovered a molecule that could lead to a cure for COVID-19.

Dasia Taylor - An 18-year old student scientist who invented color-changing sutures to detect infection

Dasia Taylor ©

This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection

Meet the scientists from sub-Saharan Africa profiled by Nature:

nature @Nature

Nature profiled six women working as scientists in sub-Saharan Africa. First up, Nigerian microbiologist Amina Ahmed El-Imam, who took her three kids under 7 to the UK by herself while she got her PhD #WomenInScience 🧵1/6 nature.com/articles/d4158…

nature.comThe superhero skills needed to juggle science and motherhoodIt might demand 12-hour days, but the chance to help shape African science makes it all worth it.

Female Scientists Who Made History:

Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland) —1934, France) - The only person to have won the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields: Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911).

Marie Curie (1867–1934) in her lab © Hulton Archive/​Getty Images/​Getty Images

Irène Joliot-Curie (1897 - 1956, France) - Chemist, physicist, and politician, and daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband Frédéric Joliot, in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements.

Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958, England) - A pioneering chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose contributions led to the discovery of DNA’s structure. She was not given full credit for her work during her lifetime.

Rosalind Franklin was so much more than the ‘wronged heroine’ of DNA

Barbara McClintock (1902 -1992, USA) - Geneticist and botanist, 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate “for her discovery of mobile genetic elements.”

The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize

Barbara McClintock's discoveries on genetics were so far beyond the understanding of the time that other scientists ignored her work for more than a decade. But she trusted her evidence and persisted. Watch the very moment she received the medicine prize in 1983. #NobelPrize

Vera Rubin (1928 – 2016, US) - One of the great pioneers in astrophysics, who verified the existence of dark matter. She was overlooked by the Nobel Committee before her death in 2016.

We’re Sorry, Vera Rubin. The rarity of science Nobels for women is an ongoing scandal

Lisa Meitner (1878 Austria-Hungary [now in Austria]—1968, England) - Physicist whose experiments provided the evidence for nuclear fission. Her collaborator, Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944.

Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912, China— 1997, US] - Physicist who brought significant contributions to particle physics and in the Manhattan Project. She was ignored by the Nobel Prize committee when it awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics to Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang.

Chien-Shiung Wu, the First Lady of Physics 

Katherine Johnson (1918 - 2020, USA) - NASA research mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft - including the Apollo 11 mission of 1969, which sent the first three men to the Moon - during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program.

The women who cracked science’s glass ceiling

Who are the scientists who inspire you? Add their names in the comment section.

If you are a scientist or an aspiring scientist, say Hi! 👋

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Organizations & Prizes for Women in Science:

• NASA & ESA

• CERN

• WIPO Academy

•  L’Oréal–UNESCO For Women in Science Programme

•  OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists 

Org. for Women in Science for the Developing World @OwsdSecretariat

It couldn't be a better day to announce the winners of the 2022 OWSD-@ElsFoundation Awards for #womeninscience! Congratulations to all 6 winners, who are awarded for their excellent research in the areas of climate action & the environment. Meet them all @ owsd.net/news/news-even…

What other organizations support women in science and STEM fields?

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Did You Know?

• There are 214 men Nobel Prize winners in physics, but only 4 women.

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Discover more:

Nobel Prize: Women Who Changed Science

UNESCO research shows women career scientists still face gender bias

“Even today, in the 21st century, women and girls are being sidelined in science-related fields due to their gender. Women need to know that they have a place in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and that they have a right to share in scientific progress”. - Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General

In focus: International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Women and the digital revolution - UNESCO Science Report 2021

UN Women Interview: “As a scientist, my mission is to raise public awareness and contribute to informed decision-making” - Featuring Dr. Aiymgul Kerimray, an environmentalist and a senior researcher at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Her research focuses on energy poverty and air quality in urban areas and its gendered impacts.

More women than ever are starting careers in science

Women less likely to win major research awards

A wonderful thread on the positive impact of physicist and engineer Millie Dresselhaus on the careers of other women in science:

Maia Weinstock ✨ Carbon Queen on sale 3/1 @20tauri

As you may know, my new biography of Millie Dresselhaus will be out in a few weeks. This #WomenInScience Day, meet a handful of the many women whose careers were directly influenced and boosted by this amazing physicist and engineer: 🧵 1/8

📚 Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus by Maia Weinstock

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This dossier is a starting point in the creation of a library of resources for young scientists and aspiring scientists. If you have any tips or resources to share, please add your comments below.

Thank you!

Anamaria

Founder & Writer of FemWealth