In light of International Women's Month, it is a good time to recall the great women in history who have offered great contributions to the world of science. Let's take a deeper look into these women who left a mark in science history.
5 World-Changing Women Scientists
Marie Curie
Marie Curie (November 7, 1867 to July 4, 1934) was a physicist and chemist. While she had many achievements, her chief ones include the discovery of radioactivity and the invention of a mobile X-ray unit used during WWI.
Along with her husband Pierre, Currie was also credited with the discovery of polonium and radium, which are two radioactive elements. She also developed techniques for the isolation of radioactive isotopes.
Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in 1903. Winning a physics award first, she was later awarded in the field of chemistry. This made her the first person to receive two awards and one of the most esteemed women in science.
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin (July 25, 1920 to April 16, 1958) was a chemist who was known for her groundbreaking work regarding the discovery of DNA's double-helix structure. Franklin died four years before her male colleagues, Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins, received the Nobel Prize award in 1962.
According to "The Double Helix" book from 1968, Watson explained how the two of them became friends as they were colleagues. He also notes that he would never have published a famous study or won the Nobel Prize if not for Rosalind.
Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Hodgkin (May 12, 1910 to July 29, 1994) was a chemist who is widely known for building the insulin molecule's first model.
Due to her determination through X-ray techniques of the structures of crucial biochemicals, Hodgkin became the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964. Hodgkin was the third woman winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, following Marie Curie and daughter Irene Joliot-Curie. Hodgkin is also the fifth woman to receive a science-related Nobel Prize.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (May 10, 1900 to December 7, 1979) was able to achieve several firsts. She was the first PhD recipient from Radcliffe College, the first to become a professor at Harvard, the first recipient of the "lifetime of eminence" award of the American Astronomical Society, and the first to discover star composition.
At some point, she was able to bag a fellowship at Harvard College Observatory in another Cambridge. By studying through a jeweler's loupe, she was able to determine the composition of stars. This led to the birth of astrophysics.
She was also able to determine the greater prevalence of hydrogen than thought. No one thought that a female graduate student could uncover such a fundamental finding.
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace (December 10, 1815 to November 27, 1852) was a mathematician who is considered the first computer programmer. This was long before the invention of modern computers.
Lovelance's notes on the proposed analytical engine (a general-purpose and programmable computer) of Charles Babbage is thought to be the earliest computer algorithm.
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