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- Jone Johnson Lewis
- Joy Adamson (Jan. 20, 1910-Jan. 3, 1980) Joy Adamson was a noted conservationist and author who lived in Kenya in the 1950s. After her husband, a game warden, shot and killed a lioness, Adamson rescued one of the orphaned cubs.
- Maria Agnesi (May 16, 1718-Jan. 9, 1799) Maria Agnesi wrote the first mathematics book by a woman that still survives and was a pioneer in the field of calculus.
- Agnodice (4th century BCE) Agnodice (sometimes known as Agnodike) was a physician and gynecologist practicing in Athens. Legend has it that she had to dress as a man because it was illegal for women to practice medicine.
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (June 9, 1836-Dec. 17, 1917) Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman to successfully complete the medical qualifying exams in Great Britain and the first woman physician in Great Britain.
- Famous Female Scientists in History
- Famous Female Scientists Today
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Throughout the history of science, women have played an important role in discovering and developing elements, tools, and treatments that save and improve lives. The most famous female scientists were trailblazers who made their marks in physics, chemistry, and space flight and paved the way for the generations of women who followed in their footst...
Today's scientific community looks different than when Marie Curie's husband had to insist her name be added to the Nobel Prize for their joint research. As they lead research teams and make ground-breaking discoveries, these women continue building on the work of their predecessors and encourage more women to enter the field.
Follow in the footsteps of these famous female scientists by exploring topics like Introduction to Chemistry: Reactions and Ratios from Duke University, An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1) from Rice University, or AI for Medicinefrom Deeplearning.AI.
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- Emilie du Chatelet (1706 – 1749) Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, the daughter of the French court’s chief of protocol, married the marquis du Chatelet in 1725.
- Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) Herschel was little more than the household drudge for her parents in Hanover, Germany (she would later describe herself as the “Cinderella of the family”), when her older brother, William, brought her to England in 1772 to run his household in Bath.
- Mary Anning (1799 – 1847) In 1811, Mary Anning’s brother spotted what he thought was a crocodile skeleton in a seaside cliff near the family’s Lyme Regis, England, home.
- Mary Somerville (1780 – 1872) Intrigued by the x’s and y’s in the answer to a math question in a ladies’ fashion magazine, 14-year-old Mary Fairfax of Scotland delved into the study of algebra and mathematics, defying her father’s injunction against such pursuits.
- Ada Lovelace, Mathematician. Dec. 10, 1815-Nov. 27, 1852. Lovelace is regarded as the first computer programmer — long before modern computers were invented.
- Marie Curie, Physicist and Chemist. Nov. 7, 1867-July 4, 1934. Chief among Curie’s many achievements include discovering radioactivity and inventing a mobile X-ray unit that was employed during World War I. With her husband, Pierre, Curie also discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium — and developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes.
- Janaki Ammal, Botanist. Nov. 4, 1897-Feb. 7, 1984. As India’s first female plant scientist, Ammal developed several hybrid species still grown today. She also advocated for protecting the biodiversity of India.
- Chien-Shiung Wu, Physicist. May 31, 1912-Feb. 16, 1997. Wu was the first scientist to confirm — and later refine — Enrico Fermi’s theory of radioactive beta decay.
Apr 30, 2024 · Marie Curie (born November 7, 1867, Warsaw, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire—died July 4, 1934, near Sallanches, France) was a Polish-born French physicist, famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
A list of female scientists who made important contributions to the field of science. Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) German astronomer. She worked on the classification and calculation of astronomical objects and identified new comets and nebulae. She also worked on the classification of stars. After moving to England with her brother, she became the first women […]
13. Sau Lan Wu. Hong Kong scientist Sau Lan Wu is a particle physicist who warmed up her theatrical career by discovering charm quarks and gluons, and then really changed the entire course of scientific history by helping to discover the Higgs boson particle, which is still the subject of cutting-edge science today. 14.
