7 Influential Women who Shaped our Perspective on Science

By Beatrix Worthington - Wens April 14, 2021

Marie Curie (Physicist + Chemist): Marie Curie was born in Poland in 1867. She went on to study science at the Sorbonne, where she met her husband, Pierre Curie. At the time, a scientist had discovered a strange glowing being emitted from uranium salts. Marie Curie took a great interest in this glow, and began to study where it was coming from. Working with Pierre, Curie went on to discover the effect was from atoms with unstable nuclei giving off particles and releasing energy. She called this effect “radioactivity.” Marie and Pierre then went on to discover two more substances with radioactivity: polonium and radium. In 1903, the Curies won a Nobel Prize for physics. In 1911, Marie Curie received another Nobel Prize for her work discovering polonium and radium. In their experiments, the couple had a lot of exposure to radiation, which eventually caused them to get sick and eventually die. Today, we now know the effects of long-term radiation exposure, and how dangerous it is. Scientists today are inspired by Marie Curie, and look back at her strength, perseverance and the discoveries she made. 

Alice Ball (Chemist): Alice Ball was born in 1892 in Seattle, Washington. She started her chemistry education at University of Washington, then transferred to Hawaii to get a master’s degree. Alice Ball became the first African-American and the first woman to graduate from University of Hawaii in 1915. A disease called Leprosy, (today called Hansen's disease) started to spread in the early 1900’s. Symptoms included skin lesions and numbness. It was proving very difficult to find a cure, because the oil that had been found to treat Hansen's disease didn’t have a way of entering the bloodstream or body correctly. Lucile Ball went on to discover a way to combine this oil with water to create a cure that could be injected. This way of treatment was named the “Ball Method.” Alice died in 1916,while teaching in a laboratory. She was very young, and many suspect that she inhaled chlorine gas by mistake, which caused her death. Today, she is remembered as an incredible scientist who created a cure for what was viewed as an in-curable disease. 

Chien-Shiung Wu (Experimental Physicist): Chien-Shiung Wu was born in China in 1912. At that time, it was not often that women were educated. However, Chien-Shiung Wu’s father advocated for women's rights, and started the very first school for girls in their town. In order to keep working on discoveries in experimental physics Chien-Shiung Wu traveled to the US in 1936. She graduated college in 1940 with a PhD, and went on to teach at Smith College and Princeton University. Columbia University hired Chien-Shiung Wu in 1944, where she developed a way of fueling the atomic bomb. She has been awarded the National Medal of Science and the Comstock Prize. Chien-Shiung Wu was a groundbreaking experimental physicist and her work is still a reference for scientists today

Hedi Lamarr (Inventor + Actress): Many people know Hedi Lamarr as a famous movie star who was called “the most beautiful woman in the world.” However, she also made huge contributions to the field of science, and helped develop the foundation of things we use every day, like WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth Devices. In 1914, Hedi Lamar was born in Austria with the name Hedwig Eva Kiesler. From a young age, she was interested in mechanics, and figuring out how certain objects functioned. However, her brilliance was pushed aside when director Max Reindhart hired her at age 16 because of her beauty. Her acting career began to take off, and she married Fritz Mandl, who was incredibly controlling and guarded Lamar. She ran away from Mandl, and fled to London, where she met Lewis B. Mayer, a film producer who gave her an acting job with MGM. As an actor, she also had a workshop where she created inventions and tinkered with creations. She ended up developing the frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), which was a way to control enemy torpedoes, an incredibly helpful tool during world war II. Hedi did not get the credit she deserved for her invention until much later in her life, and was admitted into the Inventors Hall of Fame 14 years after her death. Hedi Lamarr was so much more than an actress, she was an inventor, scientist and creator. Next time you use your GPS or get WiFi, remember that Hedi Lamarr helped the world to have those things. 

Katherine Johnson: (Physicist + Mathematician): Katherine Johnson was born in West Virginia in 1918. She was incredibly smart, and very good with numbers. She was able to learn things far above her grade level. When she was only 18, Johnson graduated college. However, jobs were hard to come by because the US was in the middle of the Great Depression. Johnson was able to get a job as a math teacher, until the 1950’s when NASA started to have job openings for female “computers.” The term computers was used for women who were hired to solve math problems. She got a job working as a “computer,” but soon wanted to be included and learn about the work she was doing math problems for. Katherine helped solve complex geometry problems that contributed to the 1961 Mercury Mission, and in 1969, helped with the mission to the moon. The equations for Apollo 11 (The moon mission) had to be perfect, and thanks to Katherine’s help, the mission went smoothly. Katerine Johnson went on to work on other projects with NASA, and her brilliance helped NASA achieve many breakthroughs. She died on February 24, 2020, but her contributions to the field will always be important. 

Valentina Tereshkova (Engineer + Cosmonaut): Valentina Tereshkova was born in 1937, in the USSR. Her family was very poor, and she worked in a tire factory and a textile factory as a young girl. She had a passion for parachute jumping, (jumping out of planes as a fun activity) which sparked her later decision to become a cosmonaut. In 1957, the Space Race started up, between the USSR and the United States. There had never been a woman sent to space before, and the USSR wanted to be the first to accomplish that. Because of her experience with parachute jumping, this made her a great candidate for this cosmonaut position. Tereshkova was chosen, along with 4 other women, to compete in order to find the strongest person to go to space. Valentina prevailed over her competition, and was approved to be the first woman in space. In 1963, she traveled to space in a space shuttle called Vostok VI. In space, she set a new record, by orbiting the Earth 48 times. Valentina Tereshkova showed everyone around the world her courage and  problem solving, by setting a groundbreaking record. Tereshkova has also said that her next goal is to go to Mars. 

Mae Jemison (Astronaut, Educator + Doctor):Mae Jemison was born in Alabama in 1956. Even when she was little, Jemison knew that she wanted to go to space, and loved learning about the Apollo Missions. However, she was often upset when she saw that there were no astronauts that looked like her. After graduating in 1977 with a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor's degree in African and African American studies, Jemison went on to attend Cornell Medical School. After her graduation, Mae Jemison joined the Peace Corps, and worked in Africa from 1983-1985. In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American Woman to go into space, which inspired Jemison to apply for the NASA astronaut program. She was accepted, and on September 20th, 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space, flying on the space shuttle Endeavor. When she left NASA in 1993, she started several organizations, including The Jemison Group and founding the BioSentient Corporation, which helps doctors to monitor patients. Mae Jemison has made many contributions to the fields of science and inspires people everywhere by being the first African American woman in space.