Women in Science: Women in Science

Inventor of several kinds of chemical apparatus and considered to be the first true alchemist of the Western world.

Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician

A German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator who was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly.

A French natural philosopher and mathematician author of Institutions de Physique and recognized for her translation of and commentary on Isaac Newton's 1687 book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica containing basic laws of physics. Her translation is still considered the standard French translation.

An English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. She is often regarded as the first computer programmer.

Ross was a Native American and member of the Cherokee Nation and the first female aerospace engineer in the history of Lockheed. She was one of the 40 founding engineers of the renowned and highly secretive Skunk Works project at Lockheed Corporation.

A Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.

An American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and portrayed as a lead character in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.

A physicist who was the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is the first African-American woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics, and the first African-American woman to have earned a doctorate at MIT in any field. She is also the second African-American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics.

An Indian botanist who worked on plant breeding, cytogenetics and phytogeography.

Astrophysicist and administrator who was the fourteenth director of the National Science Foundation, the eleventh President of Purdue University from 2007 to 2012 She now serves as President of the Science Philanthropy Alliance.

Professor of physics and astronomy at the Louisiana State University and was the spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration from March 2011 until March 2017. Part of discovering the detection of gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes, confirming many of Albert Einstein’s theories about the universe.

Leena Gade has served as a lead race engineer in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IndyCar race series. In 2011, she became the first female race engineer to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

An American computer scientist who works on algorithmic bias and data mining. She is an advocate for diversity in technology and co-founder of Black in AI, a community of Black researchers working in artificial intelligence (AI). She is the founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR).

A Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma member, is a solution Architect/Developer at IBM Watson Research working to make STEM more inclusive for Native Americans. In 2008, she received her first patent for “end-of-life prediction for flash memory.” Today, Astigarraga owns 81 patents.