Human history is filled with remarkable women whose innovations and groundbreaking discoveries have shaped the world we live in today. Today we celebrate the trailblazing women who pushed the boundaries of science, defied societal norms, and paved the way for future generations.
Marie Curie
Marie Curie is often referred to as the pioneer of radioactivity and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. However, she didn’t win one Nobel Prize, but two, making her the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. She also supplied and developed mobile x‑ray units to field hospitals and discovered two new elements, Polonium and Radium.
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace was a 19th‑century English mathematician who expanded upon Charles Babbage’s idea of the computer. She noted that the machine was capable of much more than calculating numbers, as everyone believed. Her understanding of programming enabled modern-day programmers to assemble her theories into operating systems and crowned her as the first computer programmer.
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a British chemist who studied molecular structures. Many know her as the “wronged heroine” since her studies on viruses and coal were appreciated in her lifetime, but her most important research—the discovery of the structure of DNA—wasn’t. Luckily, her influence is unquestionably crucial, and many modern researchers now recognize how influential she was to the world.
Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper was a U.S. Navy rear admiral who is best known for her work as a mathematician and computer scientist. Her never‑before‑documented understanding of programming languages led her to develop FLOW‑MATIC and COBOL, which carved the way for modern‑day computer languages. She is also known to have written the first computer operations manual.
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was a NASA employee with skills in mathematics who devoted her life to calculating orbital mechanics. Her research led to the success of the first and future American crewed spaceflights. Many colleagues named her “human computer” as her mathematical capabilities were beyond their comprehension.
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall has a love for animals, especially chimpanzees, as she is known as one of the leading experts on their behaviors. Her background as a zoologist, anthropologist, and primatologist enabled her to effectively study their behaviors and document never‑before‑seen social and familial interactions between wild chimpanzees.
Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock is a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, for her study of chromosomes. Her most important study was of the centromere and telomere, areas of chromosomes that depict the conservation of genetic information. This research changed her life and made scientists recognize her as one of the best in the cytogenetics field.
Chien‑Shiung Wu
Chien‑Shiung Wu was an experimental and particle physicist who assisted in the Manhattan Project and made major contributions to the world of particle and nuclear physics. Her most groundbreaking feat is when she disproved the law of parity, proving parity is not conserved, which led her to win the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978.
Gertrude B. Elion
Without Gertrude B. Elion, many of the life‑saving medicines we use today wouldn’t exist. She, along with two others, created new methods of rational drug design, which is crucial for the development of new pharmaceutical drugs. Her most well‑known achievements include retroviral drugs used for AIDS and Herpes, as well as an immunosuppressant to fight organ rejection after transplants.
Hypatia
Hypatia is the only 4th‑century female mathematician, whose work in mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy established her as one of the best teachers in Alexandrian history. Unfortunately, her life was ended too soon, as her murder shocked not only Alexandria but all those who loved her teachings and respected her intellect.
Lise Meitner
It is safe to say that many of today’s nuclear advancements wouldn’t have been made without Lise Meitner. By taking the findings of chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, Meitner and her nephew correctly interpreted physics into the equation and named the process “fission.” This discovery led to the creation of atomic bombs in World War II and nuclear reactors.
Sally Ride
Sally Ride opened the doors for other American women to step into spaceflight, as she was the first American woman in space and the youngest American astronaut to have been in space (32 years old). She advocated for more women to take on roles in STEM fields and even obtained a Doctorate in Philosophy and a Master of Science Degree for her extensive research into X‑rays.
Mae Jemison
In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African‑American woman to go to space after serving as the mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. She also received degrees in chemical engineering, as well as a medical degree, using it to become a doctor for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Radia Perlman
Radia Perlman might be one of the most under‑appreciated women on this list, as she is one of the reasons we have the Internet. As a network engineer and computer programmer, Perlman worked on various technologies and networks that formed the Internet. Her most influential invention was the Spanning Tree Protocol, an operation that enables the easy data transfers we use today. Many who know Perlman prefer to call her “Mother of the Internet.”
Tu Youyou
If you ever wondered why it’s become safer to travel to Africa, you should know that part of the reason is because of Tu Youyou’s pharmaceutical genius. She invented the drug that treats malaria, one of the most devastating diseases in tropical areas throughout the world. Her work has and continues to save millions of lives across Asia, Africa, and South America, and she even received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2015.
