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2285 BCE
Enheduanna (2285-2250 BCE), Akkadian-Sumerian astronomer
Enheduanna was an Akkadian princess (now part of Iraq) and one of the first astronomers and mathematicians. Her father formed the Babylonian Empire from the Sumerian and Akkadian Empires, and she was appointed Priestess of the Moon Goddess in about 2354 BCE. This role required making accurate astronomical predictions. Enheduanna was also one of the first known authors and poets -
250
Cleopatra the Alchemist (c. 250), Egyptian alchemist (early chemist)
Cleopatra is a pseudonym for a female author whose real name has been lost. She published extensive records of her chemical experiments, including drawings of the apparatus used, but much of her work was destroyed in the 3rd or 4th century. -
Sophia Brahe (1556-1643), Danish astronomer and chemist
Brahe studied horticulture, astronomy, chemistry, and medicine, but is best known for assisting her elder brother Tycho Brahe, whose astronomical observations led Johannes Kepler to determine how planets orbit the Sun. -
Marie Crous (c. 1640), French mathematician
Crous introduced the decimal system to France, although she was not acknowledged at the time. -
Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684), Italian mathematician
Piscopia was the first known woman to receive a PhD, and went on to lecturer in mathematics at the University of Padua. -
Maria Margarethe Kirch (1670-1720), German astronomer
Kirch was an astronomer who produced calendars and almanacs and was the first woman to discover a comet, although it was named after her husband Gottfried. -
Maria Clara Eimmart (1676-1707), German astronomer
Eimmart was the daughter of Georg Christoph Eimmart, the founder of the first astronomical observatory in Nurnberg, and so she was able to train in astronomy and art. Eimmart made hundreds of astronomical drawings and paintings, including depictions of the phases of the Moon and Venus, the Moons of Jupiter, and the rings of Saturn. -
Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), French mathematician and natural philosopher
Du Châtelet was the first to suggest that infrared radiation might exist, and improved on Newtonian mechanics, deriving a proof for the conservation of energy. In 1740, she combined the theories of mathematicians Gottfried Leibniz and Willem 's Gravesande to show that the energy of a moving object is proportional to the square of its velocity. This is an early form of the equation for kinetic energy. -
Laura Bassi (1711-1778), Italian natural philosopher
Bassi was the second woman to receive a PhD, and the first known female Professor in Europe. She helped introduce Newtonian mechanics to Italy, published 28 papers on physics and was among the 25 scholars chosen to advise Pope Benedict XIV. Bassi now has a crater on Venus named after her. -
Nicole-Reine Lepaute (1723-1792), French astronomer
Lepaute helped construct an astronomical clock that was approved by the French Academy of Science in 1753. She calculated the timing of a solar eclipse, compiled a number of star catalogues, and worked with fellow mathematician Alexis Clairault to predict the return of Halley's Comet. She now has an asteroid and a crater on the Moon named after her. -
Elizabeth Fulhame (c. 1794), British chemist
Fulhame published An Essay on Combustion in 1794. Here she detailed experiments on oxidation-reduction reactions and catalysis, as well as theories on combustion. This is considered by some to be a precursor to work by Jons Jakob Berzelius, who is thought of as one of the founders of modern chemistry. -
Ada Lovelace (1815-1851), British mathematician
Lovelace wrote an algorithm for the analytical engine to compute Bernoulli numbers, which would have worked had the machine been built. Lovelace is now known as the first computer programmer. -
Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), American astronomer
Mitchell was taught astronomy by her father, and she set up her own school to teach girls science and mathematics when she was 17. In 1847, she discovered a comet, and she became the first female Professor of Astronomy in the United States in 1865. -
Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911), American chemist
Richards attained her first degree at Vassar College, and her second at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she studied chemistry. She campaigned for women to have the right to a university education, and helped establish the MIT Women's Laboratory in 1876. The laboratory closed in 1883, after MIT began allowing women to undergo the same degree courses as men. -
Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), Russian mathematician
Kovalevskaya moved to Germany to complete her education, as women were not allowed to attend university in Russia. She first studied at the University of Heidelberg, under natural philosophers Hermann von Helmholtz, Gustav Kirchhoff, and Robert Bunsen.
Kovalevskaya gained her PhD in mathematics from the University of Gottingen in 1874, although she was not allowed to attend lectures at the university. -
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934), Polish-French chemist and physicist
Curie is perhaps the most well-known female scientist. She won 2 Nobel Prizes: one in Physics due to her research about radiation and one in Chemistry. She wrote a number of books, won numerous awards and medals, and has been honoured in many different ways. -
Mary Cartwright (1900-1998), British mathematician
Cartwright graduated with a PhD in mathematics from the University of Oxford in 1928. In the 1930s, she developed Cartwright's theorem, which is used in signal processing. She began collaborating with mathematician John Edensor Littlewood in 1938, becoming the first to analyse a dynamical system with chaos theory. -
Grace Hopper (1906-1992), American computer scientist
Hopper trained at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School in Massachusetts, and graduated in 1944. She was then assigned to the Computation Project at Harvard University, as a Junior Lieutenant. Here, she worked on programming the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), referred to as the Mark I. -
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), British chemist
In 1934, Hodgkin began working at the University of Oxford as a tutor in chemistry, where she stayed until 1977. Hodgkin discovered the structure of many molecules, including penicillin, vitamin B12, insulin, and molecules that make up certain types of steroids. In 1953, Hodgkin became one of the first people to measure the structure of DNA, confirming the double-helix model that had been developed by Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick, and James Watson earlier that year. -
Marie Maynard Daly (1921-2003), American chemist
In 1955, Daly collaborated with Medical Doctor Quentin Deming at Columbia University, in order to study the cause of heart attacks. Daly and Deming showed that high cholesterol is a large contributing factor as it blocks arteries. Daly later looked at the effects of other nutrients on the arteries, including sugar, and became a pioneer in the study of the effects of cigarette smoke on the lungs. -
Willie Hobbs Moore (1934-1994), American physicist
Moore earned her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1958, she stayed on to gain her master's degree in 1961, and her PhD in 1972, making her the first black woman to receive a PhD in Physics in the United States. Moore went on to work for the Bendix Aerospace Systems Division, and later became an executive at the Ford Motor Company. -
Valentina Tereshkova (1937), Russian cosmonaut and physicist
Tereshkova was an amateur skydiver before she applied to train as a cosmonaut, and became the first woman, and the first civilian in space, piloting Vostok 6 in 1963. -
Sally Ride (1951-2012), American physicist and astronaut
Ride gained her bachelor's degree in physics from Stanford University in 1973, and stayed on to gain her master's degree in 1975. She completed her PhD in physics in 1978, the same year that she joined NASA.Ride became the third woman in space, and the first American woman in space, in 1983 as a mission specialist on STS-7.