Isabella Aiona Abbott became the first native Hawaiian woman to earn a PhD in science, paving the way for all the future women who pursue a science degree.

Sylvia Acevedo is a rocket scientist, entrepreneur, tech executive, and author of "Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist."

Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord is the first Navajo woman to be certified in surgery and is a role model for the Navajo community.

Dr. Janaki Ammal was India’s first female botanist and her work encouraged India to protect its rich biodiversity.

Evelyn M. Anderson was an American physiologist and biochemist, most known for her co-discovery of adrenocorticotropic hormone in 1934.

Dr. Caroline Still Anderson was a physician dedicated to education and improving the social and political conditions for other African-Americans.

Mary Anning found the first Ichthyosaurus, a marine reptile, when she was twelve. She also found the first complete skeleton of a Plesiosaurus and the first Pterosaur.

Dr. Virginia Apgar was an American physician known for her method of assessing newborn viability called the “Apgar score.”

Frances Arnold received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for her research on the use of directed evolution to design new enzymes.

Tara Astigarraga, a Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma member, is a master engineer at IBM Watson Research working to make STEM more inclusive for Native Americans.

Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor is the second Hispanic woman to fly into outer space.

June Bacon-Bercey was an on-air meteorologist and the first African-American to earn an undergraduate degree in meteorology from UCLA.

Sara Josephine Baker, MD, DrPH, was a physician known for her work in child and maternal health in the United States.

Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinousi is a French virologist and activist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008.

Dr. Patricia Bath is an ophthalmologist known for inventing the Laserphaco Probe, a tool used in cataract surgery, and the first Black female doctor to receive a medical patent.

Ruth Rogan Benerito was a chemist and professor known for her discovery of creating wrinkle-resistant cotton, which served as an advantage to the cotton industry. Benerito received her bachelor’s in chemistry from Tulane University in 1935 and attended Bryn Mawr College to further her graduate studies.

Joan Block is a nationally recognized Hepatitis B outreach, education, and patient advocacy leader.

Bessie Blount was a physical therapist and inventor that created a medical device that could feed patients. After she graduated, she helped World War II veteran amputees regain mobility.

Marie Van Brittan Brown was an African American woman who contributed her livelihood to the invention of the first home security system. She was born in 1922 in Queens, New York, and saw the importance of protection in her area - while being a nurse, and living home alone.

Dr. Beth Brown was an American astrophysicist and the first black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Michigan.

Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, PhD was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, PhD is an astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars as a postgraduate student.

Dr. Alexa Canady is the first African-American woman to become a neurosurgeon and has helped thousands of pediatric patients over her 31-year career.

Rachel Carson is the author of Silent Spring, which is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement.

Dr. Kalpana Chawla was an astronaut and aerospace engineer on the space shuttle Columbia, and the first Indian woman in space.

Dr. May Edward Chinn was a physician who advocated for new cancer detection methods and was the first black woman to hold an internship at Harlem Hospital.

Dr. Gloria Twine Chisum is an experimental psychologist known for creating protective eyewear for pilots suitable for extreme conditions.

Dr. Margaret Chung was the first Chinese American woman to become a physician. She founded one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1920s where celebrities sought treatment from her.

Dr. Eugenie Clark was an ichthyologist who was noted for her research, specifically on poisonous fishes and the behavior of sharks in their environments.

Dr. France Córdova is known for her work as an astrophysicist in the Los Alamos National Laboratory where she studied white dwarfs and pulsars.

Gerty Theresa Cori was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African American woman to obtain an M.D. degree and worked as a nurse in Boston, Massachusetts.

Marie Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize for discovering radium and polonium. Her work in radiation paved the way for new cancer treatments.

Dr. Marie Daly was the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry in the United States. She left a lasting legacy by a scholarship fund for minority students in science programs.

Ella Cara Deloria, a Sioux ethnographer and linguist, produced research that served as the foundation of Native American anthropology.

Dresselhaus was known for her accomplishments in the field of physics and the organic elements. Her discoveries led to her nickname, the "Queen of Carbon Science."

Annie Easley, an African American mathematician, and computer scientist was born in April 1933 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her entire childhood was spent dreaming of becoming a nurse, but once she attended high school, she slowly switched her interest to pharmacy.

Gertrude Elion was a biochemist and pharmacologist who helped develop drugs using “rational drug design” to attack pathogens without harming human cells.

Dr. Dorothy Celeste Boulding Ferebee was a physician who established the Southeast Neighborhood House to give black communities greater access to healthcare.

Dr. Dijanna Figueroa, the “Deep Ocean Doctor,” is a marine scientist and educator who works extensively to make STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) education more accessible to all children. In 2005, she was featured in James Cameron’s Aliens of the Deep, a documentary that explores the Mid-Ocean Ridge. She has also appeared on […]

Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer who helped discover the molecular structure of DNA at King’s College.

Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann was a botanist and microbiologist who mainly specialized in the study of microbiology/extremophiles. Her groundbreaking work was even cited in "terraforming" Mars. Friedmann earned her degree in botany from the University of The Philippines in 1958.

Dr. Nanibaa’ Garrison is a member of the Navajo Nation and an Associate Professor at the University of California.

Ruth Gates was a well-known marine biologist whose work focused primarily on preserving coral reef areas. She married Robin Burton-Gates, whom she met in college.

German physicist Dr. Maria Goeppert Mayer made groundbreaking discoveries about nuclear structure that led her to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.

Jane Goodall is an anthropologist and primatologist. She is an expert on chimpanzees, and has worked to raise awareness on environmental conservation.

Tuyet-Hanh is a mechanical engineer and motivational speaker for women involved in STEM. Graduating in 1991 with an mechanical engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hanh decided to enroll in the Stevens’ Cooperative Education Program to get a headstart in her career.

Mary Elliott Hill was an organic and analytical chemist who helped develop ketene synthesis, a process that aids in the development of plastics.

Dr. Jane Hinton was a veterinarian who researched bacterial resistance. She was one of the first African-American veterinarians to establish her own practice in Massachusetts.

Dr. Dorothy Hodgkin was an English chemist who researched the molecular structure of penicillin and Vitamin B, earning her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Robbie E. Hood founded the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and became its first director.

Ayanna Howard is an American roboticist, entrepreneur, and educator.

Mary Jackson became NASA's first African American female engineer in 1958.

Dr. Shirley Jackson is a theoretical physicist and the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). In 2016, she was awarded the National Medal of Science for her work in physics and science-rooted public policy.

Dr. Jemison is a doctor and astronaut who was the first African American woman to travel into outer space. Currently, she is leading the 100 Year Starship Project.

Katherine Johnson was a NASA mathematician who helped calculate the flight path for NASA’s first manned space mission in 1962. Her life and career was depicted in the movie "Hidden Figures."

Dr. Anna Johnson Julian was the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Irène Joliot-Curie was a French physicist and chemist. In 1935, she and her husband shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the synthesis of new radioactive elements.

Dr. Judith Salmon Kaur is an oncologist and the Director of Native American Programs at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.

Angie King was an African American chemist, mathematician, and educator. After her retirement, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree.

Stephanie Kwolek was a Polish-American chemist who invented Kevlar.

Hedy Lamarr was an actress and inventor known as the “mother of Wi-Fi.” The technology she helped develop is the basis for GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth technology today.

Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown was the first African American female surgeon in the South. Throughout her lifetime, she continued to push limits when she became the first African American woman to serve in the Tennessee state legislature.

Dr. Margaret Morgan Lawrence became the first African-American woman to practice psychoanalysis in the United States. She remained devoted to assisting underprivileged children throughout her career.

Henrietta Leavitt was an astronomer that discovered the properties about a certain type of star, the Cepheid variable star. She found that the Cepheid variable star's pulse rate can reveal a star's brightness depending on how rapid the pulse is.

Dr. Annette S. Lee is an astrophysicist, artist, and founder of the Native Skywatchers.

Floy Agnes Lee was a technician who worked on the Manhattan Project, which was the American-led effort to build nuclear weapons during World War II.

Inge Lehmann was a seismologist that discovered that the Earth’s inner core is solid surrounded by a molten outer core. In 1971, she was honored with the William Bowie Medal — the highest distinction of the American Geophysical Union.

Dr. Ruth Lloyd was the first African American woman to acquire her doctorate degree in Anatomy, and an active member of the American Association of Anatomists.

Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, wrote the first algorithm for a machine in the 1800s and is considered the first computer programmer.

Nergis Mavalvala, PhD is a physicist who was part of the team of scientists who made the first direct detection of gravitational waves.

Dr. Barbara McClintock was a pioneer in the field of cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes, and in 1983, she won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Dr. Susan McKinney-Steward was the third black woman physician in the United States and the first in New York.

Lise Meitner was a revolutionary chemist known for her work on the Auger effect, a physical phenomenon relating to atoms and their electron vacancy. In 1901, Meitner enrolled at the University of Vienna to study physics under her mentor, Ludwig Boltzmann.

Dr. Maud Menten, a biochemist, is most known for her work in the field of enzyme kinetics and advancing the field of histochemistry.

Ynés Mexía was a botanist and conservationist that advocated to protect the redwood forests of California. She collected over 145,000 specimens over her 13-year career.

Dr. Kat Milligan-Myhre is a microbiologist and the first Alaskan Native to earn a PhD in microbiology.

Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill was the second Indigenous woman in the United States to hold an M.D. degree. She treated people from the local Oneida reservation near home free of charge.

Dr. Maryam Mirzakhani was a mathematics professor at Stanford University and the only woman to ever receive the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics.

Astronomer Maria Mitchell was the first American to discover a comet, specifically C/1847 T1 – originally known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.”

Dr. Ruth Ella Moore was known as the first African American woman in the United States who acquired a PhD in natural sciences.

Morris is an entomologist known for her groundbreaking work specifically involving the study of the Hessian fly as well as her studies involving cotton moths and bed bugs. This discovery later proved crucial to finding a method to prevent invasive species from destroying crops as well as pesticides research.

Dr. Sameera Moussa was the first Egyptian nuclear scientist. She was a strong supporter of peace, so she organized the Atomic Energy for Peace Conference.

Ildaura Murillo-Rohde, PhD, RN, FAAN founded the National Association of Hispanic Nurses in 1975.

Emmy Noether was a mathematician born on March 23rd, 1882, in Erlangen, Germany. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Erlangen where her father was a mathematics professor.

Virginia Tower Norwood was an American aerospace engineer, inventor, and physicist, and a founding figure in the field of satellite land imaging.

Dr. Antonia Novello was the first woman and the first person of Hispanic origin to become the Surgeon General of the United States.

Dr. Ellen Ochoa was the first Hispanic woman to go to space and serve as director of the Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Joan Murrell Owens was a marine biologist who classified the genus of Rhombopsammia, a type of button corals and three new species.

Edna Lee Paisano was a statistician that is credited with improving the accuracy of the 1990 Census by increasing the number of Native Americans by 38%.

Carolyn Parker was the first African American to earn a postgraduate degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As the first Indigenous archaeologist, Bertha Parker discovered humans lived in a cave 10,000 years ago -- the earliest evidence of humans in America at the time.

Dr. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was an astronomer credited with discovering the chemical composition of stars.

Dr. Audrey Shields Penn is the first African-American woman to become acting director of a branch of the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Indigenous woman to become a physician and worked tirelessly to increase healthcare access for the Omaha tribe.

Dr. Jessie Isabelle Price was a pioneering veterinary microbiologist known for creating methods to control microbial diseases in waterfowl.

Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology and assisted black students with attaining loans and funds for college.

Elsie Quarterman was known for her ambition and drive as a professor of biology at Vanderbilt University. In 1932, she graduated from Valdosta State University with a bachelor's degree

Dr. Mary Logan Reddick contributed to the scientific understanding of embryonic development through her studies on chicken embryos.

Jemma Redmond was both an innovator and biotech engineer who focused her work on the bioprinting process. Her main goal throughout her research was to be able to print functional human tissue, organs, and other devices that could be used for healthcare purposes.

Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías was the first Latina director of the American Public Health Association and dedicated her career to advocating for women's health.

Mary G. Ross, an aerospace engineer and member of the Cherokee Nation, was the first Native American female engineer in Lockheed Martin.

Reshma Saujani founded Girls Who Code in 2012. Girls Who Code is a non-profit organization that strives to provide a more inclusive environment for women to pursue computer science careers.

Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal was known for her groundbreaking research of HIV and the causes of AIDS during her career as a molecular biologist. During her studies, Staal gained interest in “retroviruses” and their ability to be potential pathogens in human diseases.

Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Stewart was a bacteriologist whose work contributed to creating the HPV vaccine.

Dr. Marguerite Thomas Williams was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in geology. She taught at Miner Teachers College and Howard University.

Sheila Tobias was a former national board member of the Association for Women in Science and a feminist who researched women's anxiety toward pursuing math and science fields.

Dr. Kazue Togasaki was one of the first Japanese American women to become a doctor in the United States and was known for her bravery as she took care of hundreds in Japanese internment camps during World War II.

Diana Trujillo is an aerospace engineer and Flight Director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory. She currently leads the Robotic Arm System team for the Mars Perseverance mission.

Tu Youyou is the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize for her discovery of artemisinin, a drug used to treat malaria.

Dr. Powtawche Valerino is a Black and Native-American guidance engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Dr. Gladys West is a mathematician who helped develop the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Karen Wetterhahn, PhD, was a chemist who worked in the toxic metal exposure field. Her peers described Wetterhahn as a trailblazer of her time as she investigated the properties of cadmium, a highly toxic metal.

Peggy Whitson, PhD, is a retired NASA astronaut who has spent 675 days in space, more than any other American or woman.

Dr. Wright was a surgeon and cancer researcher who became the first African American woman to become an associate dean of a medical institution.

Dr. Sau Lan Wu is a particle physicist who helped confirm the existence of three fundamental particles, the building blocks of protons, the J/psi, gluon, and Higgs boson.

Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu was an experimental physicist known for her contributions to the Manhattan Project and discovering how to separate uranium isotopes.

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, PhD, was the first American-born woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Yukiko Yamashita is a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who dedicates her research into studying asymmetrical cell division.

Josephine Silone Yates was a science educator who was active in women’s and civil rights organizations, traveling across the country to deliver speeches.

Tsai-Fan Yu, MD, was a physician who researched gout terminology and treatment. Dr. Yu was known for discovering a drug called probenecid, which could remove excess uric acid by triggering its excretion through the urine.