This past week, the United Nations celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Although women in science-related fields are still underrepresented, underpaid, and under published, there are quite a few notable women who have greatly impacted the field. Here are a few to know:
1. Marie Curie
Many people hear the name Marie Curie, but aren’t entirely sure about her story. Curie was a physicist and chemist who paved the way for modern nuclear science. Her main studies involved radioactivity, such as X-rays and cancer treatment. Because of her significant studies, she became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Along with her husband, she was able to discover two new radioactive elements, and even founded a medical institution in Poland. Although she died due to the exposure to radioactivity, Curie pioneered the chemistry field with her discoveries and her endless curiosity.
2. Jane Goodall
Although most people seem to refer to her as the crazy monkey lady, Jane Goodall is probably the most well-known and respected primatologist of present time. Goodall paved the way for women in biology, because she was able to do fieldwork during a time when such work was considered too dangerous and manly. Goodall also became one of the first few people to earn a PhD without a prior degree. Thanks to her determination and admiration for all living things, Goodall helped discover how chimpanzees interact with one another, and was the first person to observe that they made tools for work.
3. Rosalind Franklin
Poor Rosalind Franklin is often overlooked thanks to the fact that two men took her work without permission and made profit off of it. A chemist and x-ray crystallographer, Franklin is most notable for taking the first known picture of DNA. However, James Watson and Francis Crick took her picture without permission and used it to work on determining the structure of DNA, for which they won the Nobel Prize for. Franklin is often overlooked in the history books, but I’m here to say that we see you girl! Although she was denied credit for her hard work, Franklin helped pave the way for numerous scientific fields of today.
4. Katherine Johnson
If you’ve seen the movie “Hidden Figures”, then you’ve definitely heard her name before. Katherine Johnson was a mathematician who played a major role in early US Space Exploration. Her calculations for trajectory, launch windows, and emergency return paths, helped get a man on the moon (and back home safe and sound). Johnson paved the way by being the first African-American woman to graduate from her graduate school, and was one of only a handful of African-American women to work for NASA at the time. She is also still going strong at 101 years old!
5. Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who helped shape the environmental movement. Although she primarily worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson also wrote on the side about how synthetic pesticides negatively impact the environment. Her extensive knowledge on the environment and the brutal harshness it has faced, helped launch awareness on the environment and how it is being destroyed. Her most famous work is titled “Silent Spring”, which is considered one of the most influential works of the 20th century.