I create Wikipedia articles for forgotten women in STEM as part of the Wikipedia Women In Red project because women's representation in science is something really important to me. Wikipedia is a fantastic resource but less than 18% of Wikipedia biographies are about women, and so I work to increase the diversity and representation on Wikipedia, showing young girls that women have always made significant contributions to science, but unfortunately they were often unrecognised and written out of history until now.
Below are some of the incredible women in STEM history what I have been lucky enough to create Wikipedia articles for, and almost all of which experienced prejudice and fought to make their contributions in science, but their hard work paved the way for women like me and they deserve recognition. So this is my small contribution to recognising those female scientists who came before me.
Linda Celida Meade-Tollin is a biochemist. Her research focused on DNA damage, angiogenesis, and cancer invasion and metastasis. She developed a new bioassay for angiogenesis in human microvascular endothelial cells, which was used to identify inhibitors and enhancers from desert fungi.
Tanya Moore is a mathematician and activist for women in science. She founded Infinite Possibilities, a national conference that is designed to promote, educate, encourage and support minority women underrepresented in mathematics and statistics. She has been identified as one of the top women in STEM, including by Oprah.
Dr Moogega Cooper Stricker is the Lead of Planetary Protection for the Mars 2020 Mission and is involved with the InSight Mission, which involves preventing NASA satellites and probes from contaminating other planets or moons with microorganisms, and technologies which are able to search for and monitor the persistence of life in extreme environments. She has numerous TV appearances, including on Bill Nye.
Dr Ethel Elizabeth Osborne was a British-born Australian doctor who was an expert in the field of hygiene and public health. She supported the education of women and their working conditions. A hall in the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is named after her.
Gabrielle Maud Vassal was a British naturalist. supplied numerous specimens from Vietnam, Gabon, and Congo to the Natural History Museum in London for a period of 30 years. Her specimens included several newly-discovered species, and a number were named after her, including the yellow-cheeked gibbon Nomascus gabriellae. A portrait of her is in the National Portrait Gallery.
Alice Albertson Shurrocks was an American botanist and archaeologist. Shurrocks and her husband collected roughly 1,000 Native Wampanoag arrowheads, spear points, pottery sherds, and other items in the 1930s and donated these to Nantucket Historical Association in 1940, as well as botanical samples, particularly lichens, many of which are now held in the Harvard University Herbaria.
Renée Watson is an Australian-born science communicator and entrepreneur. She is the founder of The Curiosity Box. Winning numerous awards for her work in science communication.
Elizabeth Macfarlane Chesser was a British physician and medical journalist, writing and lecturing especially on women's health, championing the importance of female education, suffrage and employment.
Rebecca Lee Dorsey was the world's first female endocrinologist and the first woman physician to practice in Los Angeles. She was the attending physician at over 4,000 births during her lifetime and administered the first diphtheria inoculation in Los Angeles
Rose Monteiro was a late 19th Century plant collector and naturalist, travelled in Angola and Mozambique. She collected several new types of Aloe which she sent to Kew Gardens, which was cultivated, and the species was named after her Aloe Monteiroæ.
Mary De la Beche Nicholl was a lepidopterist and mountaineer. She travelled around the world cataloguing butterflies and wrote several books on her discoveries.
Linda Celida Meade-Tollin is a biochemist. Her research focused on DNA damage, angiogenesis, and cancer invasion and metastasis. She developed a new bioassay for angiogenesis in human microvascular endothelial cells, which was used to identify inhibitors and enhancers from desert fungi.
Tanya Moore is a mathematician and activist for women in science. She founded Infinite Possibilities, a national conference that is designed to promote, educate, encourage and support minority women underrepresented in mathematics and statistics. She has been identified as one of the top women in STEM, including by Oprah.
Dr Moogega Cooper Stricker is the Lead of Planetary Protection for the Mars 2020 Mission and is involved with the InSight Mission, which involves preventing NASA satellites and probes from contaminating other planets or moons with microorganisms, and technologies which are able to search for and monitor the persistence of life in extreme environments. She has numerous TV appearances, including on Bill Nye.
Dr Ethel Elizabeth Osborne was a British-born Australian doctor who was an expert in the field of hygiene and public health. She supported the education of women and their working conditions. A hall in the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is named after her.
Gabrielle Maud Vassal was a British naturalist. supplied numerous specimens from Vietnam, Gabon, and Congo to the Natural History Museum in London for a period of 30 years. Her specimens included several newly-discovered species, and a number were named after her, including the yellow-cheeked gibbon Nomascus gabriellae. A portrait of her is in the National Portrait Gallery.
Alice Albertson Shurrocks was an American botanist and archaeologist. Shurrocks and her husband collected roughly 1,000 Native Wampanoag arrowheads, spear points, pottery sherds, and other items in the 1930s and donated these to Nantucket Historical Association in 1940, as well as botanical samples, particularly lichens, many of which are now held in the Harvard University Herbaria.
Renée Watson is an Australian-born science communicator and entrepreneur. She is the founder of The Curiosity Box. Winning numerous awards for her work in science communication.
Elizabeth Macfarlane Chesser was a British physician and medical journalist, writing and lecturing especially on women's health, championing the importance of female education, suffrage and employment.
Rebecca Lee Dorsey was the world's first female endocrinologist and the first woman physician to practice in Los Angeles. She was the attending physician at over 4,000 births during her lifetime and administered the first diphtheria inoculation in Los Angeles
Rose Monteiro was a late 19th Century plant collector and naturalist, travelled in Angola and Mozambique. She collected several new types of Aloe which she sent to Kew Gardens, which was cultivated, and the species was named after her Aloe Monteiroæ.
Mary De la Beche Nicholl was a lepidopterist and mountaineer. She travelled around the world cataloguing butterflies and wrote several books on her discoveries.
Elizabeth Emerson Atwater was a American botanist, collected 2,000 different specimens during a visit to Yellowstone National Park, here collection was donated to the Chicago Academy of Sciences. A new species of moss was later named after her, Bryum atwateriae
Dr. Harriett Alleyne Rice was the first African-American to graduate from Wellesley College, she was awarded the Medal of French Gratitude for her medical contributions on the front in WWI.
Alice Archenhold was a German astronomer who was arrested and taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp where she later died. A street in Berlin is now named after her.
Dr Hanna Klaus was an OB/GYN physician and a Catholic nun, she developed a natural family planning method which is approved by the Catholic Church.
Professor Marina Jirotka created the idea of the ‘ethical black box’ for machines using AI to aid in post-accident investigations.
Dr Mary Spackman was the first female medical student to graduate from Howard University in 1872, but was repeatedly refused a medical licence because she was a woman.
Dr Ella Campbell Scarlett was the first female doctor to work in
the state of Bloemfontein, South Africa and the first female doctor at the
Royal Columbian Hospital in Canada.
Dr Mary Almera Parsons was an American physician who
successfully petitioned for the Medical Society of the District of Columbia to
grant medical licenses to women.
Dr Louise Sherwood McDowell was the first female physicist and
the first female Ph.D. to work at the United States Bureau of Standards, where she was conducting research on radar.
Fanny Moser was the first female student at the University
of Freiburg, she went on work with the Museum of Natural History in Berlin and
discovered 9 new species of marine invertebrate.
Dr Grace Arabell Goldsmith was an American physician who
discovered the specific roles of dietary folic acid and vitamin B-12 and
determined that niacin deficiency was the cause of pellagra.
Elizabeth Bragg was the first woman to receive a civil
engineering degree from an American university.
Dr Alfreda Bosworth Withington was an American physician, but
was refused a position in an infirmary because she was a woman, so she became a
travelling doctor on the frontier visiting patients on horseback.
Dr Elizabeth Knight was a British physician and campaigner for
women’s suffrage. After being imprisoned for attempting to interview the prime
minister she wrote “Social and Sanitary Conditions of Prison Life”
Dr Charlotte Fitch Roberts was an American chemist best known
for her work on stereochemistry. She was so talented she was offered a position
as a professor before she had even obtained a PhD.
Emma G. Cummings was an American horticulturalist from
Brookline, MA. She was an influential member of the tree planting committee,
gave lectures to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and wrote several
books.
Dr Phyllis Clinch was an Irish botanist working with plant
viruses. One of the first four women elected to membership of the Royal Irish
Academy. The first woman to be awarded the Boyle Medal.
Dr Ida Freund was the first woman to be a university chemistry
lecturer in the UK. She fought for women to be admitted to the Royal Society of
Chemistry. Two prizes are named after her, awarded annually by Newnham and
Girton College.
Dr Sylvia Lawler was the first female professor at Institute
of Cancer Research. She helped develop tissue-typing and laid the foundation
for bone-marrow transplantation. The Royal Society of Medicine awards the
Syliver Lawler prize.
Dr Elizabeth S Russell carried out ground breaking work in
pigmentation, blood-forming cells, and germ cells. At the Jackson lab she carried out a pivotal study on phenotypes association
to genotype in mouse coat colour.
Dr Sally Hughes-Schrader was a Professor of Zoology and the head
of the Biology Department at Barnard College. She performed the first complete
dissection of the cranial nerves of the dogfish.
Dr Jane Anne Russell determined the relationship between the
pituitary and carbohydrates. Her work allowed the further isolation and
identification of growth hormones. She was Vice President of the Endocrine
Society.
Sarah Mawe was Queen Victoria’s mineralogist. She constructed
her own collections of minerals, which were then loaned to other famous scientists,
and photographed for mineralogy textbooks.
Louisa Lane Clarke was best known for her later botanical work
popularizing microscopy.
Cyrinthia Sacretia Smith was one of the five infamous Smith
Sisters. She was a dedicated horticulturalist and kept extensive kept notes on
her experiments on plants and fruit grafts she was growing.
Dr Frances Emily White was a US anatomist and physiologist. She
was one of the first women to lecture before the Franklin Institute and was the
first woman delegate to the International Medical congress (1890).