Beatrice Hicks Received degrees in both chemical and electrical engineering, as well as in physics One of the founding members and first president of Society of Women Engineers first woman engineer hired by Western Electric Co, where she developed environment sensing devices before working on quality control devices

Gertrude B. Elion Won the Nobel Prize in 1988 for Physiology/Medicine Developed many drugs, such as those that treated AIDS, leukemia, gout, malaria, meningitis, and others First woman to be inducted into the National Inventers Hall of Fame

Sally Ride First American woman to enter space Worked for NASA. Also one of the developers of the robotic arm, which was then used in a space mission In National Women’s Hall of Fame Now President and CEO of Sally Ride Science, which promotes science to middle school-aged children

Elizabeth Blackwell First female doctor in the USA, and first female on the UK medical register Opened her own practice and trained many nurses for the Civil War Later opened the Women’s Medical College in England, along with Florence Nightingale

Marie Curie The “Mother of Modern Physics” Studied radioactivity and isolated Polonium and Radium First woman awarded a PhD in research science in Europe, as well as the first female professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris Also the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize (in Physics and Chemistry)

Grace Murray Hopper Developed the COBOL programming language, Also developed the first computer compiler and was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer Created the term “debugging” first woman Admiral in US Navy USS Hopper is named after her

Lillian Gilbreth First PhD awardee in Industrial Psychology, which allowed her to work with engineers to design products She was also the first female engineering professor at Perdue Second woman in the Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the first honorary member of the Society of Women Engineers “Cheaper by the Dozen” is based on her and her family’s life

Rosalind Franklin X-ray crystallographer whose work was key in the discovery that DNA was a double helix Also worked on the structure of RNA and how it affects cells Researched the Tobacco Mosaic Virus and the Polio virus

Annie Jump Cannon Studied astronomy and physics Astronomer most famous for designing the contemporary start classification system Also organized stars by their temperature, the first to do so Discovered over 300 stars in her lifetime