My favourite people in history-
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.
Lise Meitner, ForMemRS (7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian, later Swedish, physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Meitner is often mentioned as one of the most glaring examples of women's scientific achievement overlooked by the Nobel committee. A 1997 Physics Today study concluded that Meitner's omission was "a rare instance in which personal negative opinions apparently led to the exclusion of a deserving scientist" from the Nobel. Element 109, meitnerium, is named in her honour.
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.
Barbara McClintock, was an American scientist and one of the world's most distinguished cytogeneticists, the 1983 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927.
Ada Byron (Countess of Lovelace)
Beloved icon of computer nerds everywhere, Ada Byron was an early computer scientist - a VERY early computer scientist.
Back in the 1800s, Byron, the daughter of poet Lord Byron, studied with English mathematician Charles Babbage. Babbage's early proposed "analytical engine" was one of the earliest computers -- or would have been, if it was ever built.
Ada realized its potential. Her analysis and explanation of how Babbage's "analytical machine" (a giant calculator, in essence) might be used to calculate a series of mathematically important numbers pretty much made her the first computer programmer.
So the first computer programmer was a girl, huh? Interesting.
Elizabeth Blackwell
Look, getting into medical school is tough; everyone knows that.
But for Elizabeth Blackwell, her rejection letter had nothing to do with MCAT scores or letters of recommendation. Back in 1849, it was a pretty big deal for a woman to even try to practice medicine, and medical schools weren't exactly eager to help a girl out.
Hypatia of Alexandria
Talk about being a forerunner. Hypatia was born a long time ago, around A.D. 370, back when women weren't exactly encouraged to become scientists and mathematicians.
Hypatia was taught by her father, Theon, himself a noted mathematician and philosopher, but she soon had her own following of students and a set of published works on the physical and astronomical worlds. Eventually, her teachings would cost her: Hypatia's brutal death came courtesy of an angry Christian mob, who believed her scientific studies were tantamount to heresy.
Since then, Hypatia has been heralded as a patron saint of science, portrayed in 19th-century paintings with flowing locks and draped robes, defending science against the onslaught of religion.
Maria Mitchell
Discovering a comet ought to get you some street cred as an astronomer, right? Not necessarily. Though Mitchell, born in 1818, was the first female member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was widely known throughout the world, she was still paid less than her male colleagues at Vassar - or at least she was until she stood her ground. In addition to discovering "Miss Mitchell's comet," she also found that sunspots were an independent phenomenon and not a type of cloud. When she wasn't behind a telescope, Mitchell was politically active, campaigning against slavery and for women's suffrage. All in all, a thoroughly modern woman.
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