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Period: 370 to 415
Hyptia
Hyptia was a Greek mathematician, astronmer, and philsopher. She was the head of the Neoplatonic School in Alexandria and was a highly respected teacher. She is credited as the first recorded female scientist in history -
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Caroline Lucretia Herschel
Herschel an astronomist is credited for the discovery of 3 new nebula and 8 comets. She is reconized as the first professional female astronomer -
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Marie Curie
Curie was not only a great woman scientist but also a great scientist overall. She codiscovered with her husband, Pierre Curie two chemical elements; polonium and radium. Her efforts in the field of radiation allowed the use of it in medical treatments for cancer. She was also the first winner of two Nobel Peace Prizes and was the first woman to teeach in Sorbonne in Paris. -
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Lise Meitner
Meitner's work in the field of radioactivity allowed for the discovery that an atom of uranium could be split using neutrons which leads to the release of huge amounts of energy. She was the first person to coin the word nuclear fission which is now a commonly used process in the development of atomic bombs and nuclear energy. -
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Irene Joliot-Curie
Like her mother Marie Curie, Irene Curie studied radioactivity and along with her husband they were able to create the first artificially radioactive element. Her work earned her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Her contribution to the world allowed for the development and discovery of nuclear fission which is the fundamental process behinf nuclear energy and atomic weapons. -
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Barbara McClintock
McClintock was a genetics researcher who proposed the jumping gene phenomenon. Within this process certain sequences of DNA could move to different positions within the genome of a single cell through a process known as transposition. This phenomenon affects the DNA content of the cell and causes visible mutation such as different leaf color or plant height. For her work she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 -
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Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
Hodgkin used powerful computers and a technique known as x-ray crystallograpy to discover the molecular structures of penicillin and vitamin B12 as well as insulin. Though her work scientists were able to modify and synthesize new forms of penicillin and insulin which helped in saving millions of lives. She won the Nobel prize in 1964. -
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Rosalind Franklin
Franklin provided the x-ray crystallographic images which were crucial to Watson and Crick who were, after seeing her work, able to deduce the helical shape of the molecule. Without this crucial piece to the puzzle Watson and Crick would not been able to understand the shape of the molecule.