List of pre-21st-century female scientists

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This is an historical list of notable female scientists whose main period of scientific activity predated the 21st century, listed by historical period, and listed within each section alphabetically by name, with their years of activity, and field of endeavor. Please note that all the scientists in this list must independently pass the notability criteria on their own merits; just being female and working in science is not enough to be on this list.

Please note: this is an historical list, intended to deal with the time period when women working in science were rare. For this reason, this list ends at the 20th century.

Contents 1 Antiquity 2 Middle Ages 3 15th to 17th centuries 4 18th century 5 19th century 6 20th century 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Antiquity

Agamede (12th century BCE), (possibly mythical) physician in Ancient Greece Aglaonike (2nd century BCE), the first woman astronomer in Ancient Greece Agnodike (4th century BCE), the first woman physician to practice legally in Athens Arete of Cyrene (5th-4th centuries BCE), natural and moral philosopher, North Africa Artemisia of Caria (c. 300 BCE), botanist[citation needed] Aspasia of Miletus (4th century BCE), philosopher and scientist Cleopatra the Alchemist (1st century BCE - 1st century AD)[citation needed] Diotima of Mantinea (4th century BCE), philosopher and scientist, ancient Greece (sources vary as to her historicity; possibly a fictionalized character based on Aspasia of Miletus) Enheduanna (c. 2285-2250 BCE), Sumerian/Akkadian astronomer and poet Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415), mathematician and astronomer, Egypt

Mary the Jewess (1st or 2nd century CE), alchemist Merit Ptah (c.2700 BCE), Egyptian physician Pythias of Assos (4th century BCE), marine zoologist[citation needed] Tapputi-Belatekallim (c 1200 BCE), Babylonian chemist[citation needed] Theano (6th century BCE), philosopher, mathematician and physician

[edit] Middle Ages

Abella (14th century), Italian physician Bettina d'Andrea (d. 1333), Italian lawyer and philosopher Novella d'Andrea (d. 1333), Italian lawyer Hildegard von Bingen (1099-1179), German natural philosopher Dorotea Bocchi (fl. 1390), Italian professor of medicine Constance Calenda (15th century), Italian surgeon specialising in diseases of the eye[1][2] Constanza, Italian physician[1] Calrice di Durisio (15th century), Italian physician Jacobina Félicie (fl. 1322), Italian physician Alessandra Giliani (fl. 1318), Italian anatomist

Rebecca de Guarna (14th century), Italian physician[1][2] Heloise (12th century), French mathematician and physician Herrad of Landsberg (c.1130-1195), German/French author of the encyclopedia and technological compendium Garden of Delight Maria Incarnata, Italian surgeon[2] Margarita (14th century), Italian physician[2] Thomasia de Mattio, Italian physician[2] Mercuriade (14th century), Italian physician and surgeon[1] Empress Theodora (500-545), Byzantine philosopher and mathematician Trotula of Salerno (c. 1090), Italian physician

[edit] 15th to 17th centuries

Aphra Behn (1640-1689), British astronomer Juliana Berners (fl. 1460), British natural historian Celia Grillo Borromeo (1684-1777), Italian natural philosopher Sophia Brahe (1556-1643), Danish astronomer and chemist Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), natural philosopher Maria Cunitz (1610-1664), Polish astronomer Du Chatelet, Martine de Birtereau, Baroness of Beausoleil (1602-1642), French mineralogist and mining engineer Jeanne Dumée (fl. 1680), French astronomer Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine (1618-1680), German natural philosopher Françoise Grigan (1646-1705), French natural philosopher

Elisabetha Koopman Hevelius (c.1646), Polish astronomer Anne de La Vigne (b. 1684), French natural philosopher Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), naturalist Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617), Italian natural philosopher Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684), Italian mathematician and the first female PhD Louise-Anastasia Serment (1642-1692), French natural philosopher Jane Sharp (fl. 1671), British midwife Lorenna Strozzi (1515-1591), Italian natural philospoher

[edit] 18th century

Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), French mathematician and physicist Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799), Italian mathematician Maria Ardinghelli (1728-1825), Italian mathematician and physicist Anna Atkins (1799-1871), British botanist Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola (c. 1702), natural philosopher, translator Laura Bassi (1711-1778), Italian physicist Margaret Bryan (b. c.1760), British natural philosopher Elsa Beata Bunge (1734-1819), Swedish botanist Nicole-Reine Lepaute (1723-1792), French astronomer. Jane Colden (1724-1766), American biologist Gabrielle-Emilie Du Chatelet (1706-1749), French natural philosopher Maria Dalle Donne (1778-1842), Italian physician Eva Ekeblad (1724-1786), Swedish agronomist Dorothea Leporin Erxleben (1715-1762), German physician Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794), British chemist Sophie Germain (1776-1831), elasticity theory, number theory Catherine Littlefield Green (1755-1814), American inventor

Claudine Guyton de Morveau (c.1770-c.1820), French natural philosopher Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), German-British astronomer Josephine Kablick (b. 1787), Botanist Christine Kirch (c.1696-1782), German astronomer Maria Margarethe Kirch, (1670-1720), German astronomer Maria La Chapelle (1769-1821), French midwife Marie Améile Lalande (fl. 1790), French astronomer Marie Paulze Lavoisier (1758-1836), French chemist and illustrator Nichole-Reine Etable de la Brière Lepaute (1723-1788), French astronomer Martha Daniell Logan (1702-1779), American horticulturist Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774), Italian physician and anatomist Maria Pettracini (fl. 1780), Italian anatomist and physician Louise du Pierry (b. 1746), French astronomer Martha Laurens Ramsey (1718-1811), American agronomist

[edit] 19th century

Lovisa Aarberg (19th century), Swedish physician Elisabeth Adams (19th century) Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (1822-1907), American natural historian Mary Albertson, American astronomer and biologist Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917), British physician Mary Anning (1799-1847), British natural historian Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923), British physicist Sara Josephine Baker (1873-1945), American doctor (child hygiene pioneer) Florence Bascom (1862-1945), American geologist Isabella Bird Bishop (1831-1904), British natural historian Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), American physician Emily Blackwell (1826-1910 ), American physician Marie Gillain Boivin (1773-1841), French midwife Mary Layne Brandegee (1844-1920), American biologist Elizabeth Knight Britton (1858-1934), American biologist Mary E. Britton (19th century) Elizabeth Brown (d. 1899), British astronomer Mary Morland Buckland (d. 1857), British natural historian Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930), American psychologist Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941), American astronomer Mary Agnes Meara Chase (1869-1963), American biologist Cornelia Clapp (1849-1934), American zoologist Agnes Mary Claypole (1870-1954), American biologist Edith Jane Claypole (1870-1915), American biologist Agnes Mary Clerke (1842-1907), British astronomer Anna Botsford Comstock (1854-1930), American natural historian A. Grace Cook American astronomer Clara Eaton Cummings (1853-1906), American biologist Florence Cushman American astronomer Lydia Maria Adams DeWitt (1859-1928) American pathologist Amalie Dietrich (1821-1891), German natural historian Maria Dalle Donne (19th century) June Etta Downey (1875-1932), American psychologist Mary Anna Palmer Draper (1839-1914), American astronomer Alice Eastwood (1859-1953), American biologist Rosa Smith Eigenmann (1858-1947), American biologist Mileva Einstein-Maric (1875-1948), Serbian/Swiss physicist Ellen Eglui (19th century) Mary Orr Evershed (1867-1949), British astronomer Margaret Clay Ferguson (1863-1951), American biologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923), American ethnologist Williamina Fleming (1857-1911), Scottish/American astronomer Lydia Folger Fowler (1822-1879), American physician Harriet Boyd Hawes (1871-1945), American archeologist Margaret Lindsay Murray Huggins (1848-1915), British astronomer Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857-1945), American biologist Sophia Jex-Blake (1840-1912), British physician Marcia Keith (1859-1950), American physicist Mary Kies (19th century), American inventor Helen Dean King (1869-1955), American biologist Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), Russian mathematician (partial differential equations, rotating solids, Abelian functions) Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930), American psychologist Lefebre (19th century) Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921), American astronomer Sarah Plumber Lemmon (1836-1923), American biologist Jane Webb Loudon (1807-1858), British botanist

Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1851), British mathematician Mary Horner Lyell (1808-1873), British geologist A. H. Manning (19th century) Margaret Eliza Maltby (1860-1944), American physicist Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769-1858), British natural philosopher Lillen Jane Martin (1851-1943), American psychologist Sarah Mather (19th century) Annie Russell Maunder (1868-1947), Irish astronomer Antonia Caetana Maury (1866-1952), American astronomer Carlotta Joaquina Maury (1874-1938), American paleontologist Olive Thorne Miller (1831-1918), American natural historian Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), American astronomer Mary Murtfeldt (1848-1913), American biologist Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), British nurse Eleanor Anne Ormerod (1828-1901), British biologist Edith Marion Patch (1876-1954), American biologist Florence Peebles (1874-1956), American biologist Mary Engle Pennington (1872-1952), American chemist Sophia Pereyaslaw (19th century) Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793-1884), American science educator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), British mycologist Mary Jane Rathbun (1860-1943), American marine biologist Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911), American industrial and environmental chemist Emily Roebling (1844-1903), American civil engineer Clemence Augustine Royer (1830-1902) Caterina Scarpellini (1808- ) Rena Florence Sabin (1871-1953), American anatomist and public health official Ethel Sargant (1863-1918), British biologist Lucy Sistare Say (1801-1885), American scientific illustrator Ellen Churchill Semple (1863-1932), American geographer Annie Lorrain Smith (1854-1937), British lichenologist and mycologist Mary Somerville (1780-1872), British physicist Nettie Stevens (1861-1912), American geneticist Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833-1910), American dentist Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794-1871), French marine biologist Mary Walker (1832-1919), American surgeon Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939), American psychologist Sarah Frances Whiting (1846-1927), American astronomer and physicist[1] Mary Watson Whitney (1847-1921), American astronomer Fiammetta Wilson (1864-1920), British astronomer Anna Winlock (1857-1904), American astronomer Anne Sewell Young (1871-1961), American astronomer

[edit] 20th century

Faye Ajzenberg-Selove (1926- ) [2], American nuclear physicist Claudia Alexander, American planetary scientist Betsy Ancker-Johnson (1929- ) [3], American plasma physicist Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923), British mathematician and electrical engineer (electric arcs, sand ripples, invention of several devices, geometry) [4] Milla Baldo-Ceolin [5], Italian particle physicist Yvonne Barr (1932- ), British virologist (co-discovery of Epstein-Barr virus) Ruth Benedict (1887-1948), American anthropologist Susan Blackmore (1951- ), British science writer (memetics, evolutionary theory, consciousness, parapsychology) Mary Adela Blagg (1858-1944), British astronomer Marietta Blau (1894-1970) [6], German experimental particle physicist Katharine Blodgett (1898-1979) [7], American thin-film physicist Christiane Bonnelle [8], French spectroscopist Alice Middleton Boring (1883-1955), American biologist Lera Boroditsky, American psychologist Jenny Rosenthal Bramley (1909-1997), Lithuanian-American physicist [9] Harriet Brooks (1876-1933) [10], American radiation physicist Linda B. Buck (1947- ), American neuroscientist (Nobel prize for olfactory receptors) Margaret Burbidge (1919- ), British astrophysicist [11] Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943- ), British astrophysicist (discovery of radio pulsars) [12] Nina Byers (1930- ) [13], American physicist Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941), American astronomer Estella Eleanor Carothers (1883-1957), American biologist Mary L. Cartwright (1900-1998) [14] Yvette Cauchois (1908-1999) [15] Margaret Chan (b. 1947), Chinese-Canadian health administrator; director of the World Health Organization Martha Chase (1927-2003), American molecular biologist Amanda Chessell computer scientist Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (1923- ) [16], French theoretical physicist Patricia Cladis (1937- ) [17] Janine Connes [18] Esther Conwell (1922- ) [19] Ursula M. Cowgill, American biologist and anthropologist Suzanne Cory (1942- ), Australian immunologist/cancer researcher Heather Couper (1949- ), British astronomer (astronomy popularisation, science education) Deborah Crocker (1957- ) Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934), Polish-French chemist (pioneer in radiology, discovery of polonium and radium) [20] Eleanor Davies-Colley (1874–1934), British surgeon (first female FRCS) Cecile DeWitt-Morette (1922- ) [21] Louise Dolan [22] Nancy M. Dowdy (1938- ) [23] Mildred Dresselhaus (1930- ) [24] Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902-1959) important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine.[25] Helen T. Edwards (1936- ) [26] Tatjana Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa (1876-1964) [27] Gertrude B. Elion (1918-1999), American biochemist (Nobel prize for drug development) Magda Ericson (1929- ) [28] Sandra Faber (1944- ) [29] Claire Fagin, American health-care researcher Dian Fossey (1932-1985), American zoologist [30] Rosalind Franklin (1920-1957), British physical chemist and crystallographer Judy Franz (1938- ) [31] Phyllis S. Freier (1921-1992) [32] Mary K. Gaillard (1939- ) [33] Fanny Gates (1872-1931) [34] Kate Gleason (1865-1933), American engineer Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968) [35] Claire F. Gmachl, American physicist Jane Goodall (1934 - ), British biologist, primatologist [36] Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber (1911-1998) [37] Sulamith Goldhaber (1923-1965) [38] Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924- ) Susan Greenfield (1951- ), British neurophysiologist (neurophysiology of the brain, popularisation of science) Gail Hanson (1947- ) [39] Anna J. Harrison (1912-1998), American organic chemist Evans Hayward (1922- ) [40] Caroline Herzenberg (1932- ) [41] Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), British X-ray crystallographer [42] Grace Hopper (1906-1992), American computer scientist Sethanne Howard (1944- ) Clara Immerwahr (1870-1915), German chemist Shirley Jackson (physicist) (1946- ) [43] Bertha Swirles Jeffreys (1903-1999) [44]

Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956), French chemist and nuclear physicist [45] Carole Jordan (1941- ), British solar physicist Renata Kallosh (1943- ) [46] Berta Karlik (1904-1990) [47] Bruria Kaufman (1918- ) [48] Marcia Keith (1859-1950) [49] Ann A. Kiessling (1942- ) Margaret Kivelson (1928- ) [50] Dorothea Klumpke (1861-1942), American-born astronomer Noemie Benczer Koller (1933- ) [51] Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf (1922- ) [52] Stephanie Kwolek (1923- ), American chemist, inventor of Kevlar Elizabeth Laird (1874-1969) [53] Henrietta Leavitt, (1868-1921), American astronomer (periodicity of variable stars) Juliet Lee-Franzini (1933- ) [54] Inge Lehmann (1888-1993) [55] Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909- ), Italian neurologist (Nobel prize for growth factors) Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971) [56] Misha Mahowald (1963-1996), American neuroscientist [57] Margaret E. Maltby (1860-1944), American physicist [58] Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972), German-American physicist [59] Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), American geneticist Anne McLaren (1927-2007), British developmental biologist Helen Megaw (1907- ) [60] Lise Meitner (1878-1968), Austrian nuclear physicist (pioneering nuclear physics, discovery of nuclear fission, protactinum, and the Auger effect) Maud Menten (1879-1960), Canadian biochemist Kirstine Meyer (1861-1941) [61] Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister (1915-1981) [62] Anna Nagurney Canadian-born, US operations researcher/management scientist focusing on networks Chiara Nappi, Italian American physicist Ann Nelson (1958- ), American physicist Marcia Neugebauer [63] Gertrude Neumark (1927- ) [64] Ida Tacke Noddack (1896-1979) [65] Emmy Noether (1882-1935), German mathematician and theoretical physicist (symmetries and conservation laws) [66] Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1942- ), German geneticist and developmental biologist (Nobel prize for homeobox genes) Donna Osif (20th century), meteorologist [67] Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1978), British-American astronomer Marguerite Perey (1909-1975) [68] Melba Phillips (1907- ) [69] Agnes Pockels (1862-1935) [70] P. Ya. Polubarinova-Kochina (1899- ) [71] Edith Quimby (1891-1982) [72] Helen Quinn (1943- ) [73] Lisa Randall (1962- ), American physicist F. Gwendolen Rees (1906-1994), British parasitologist Anita Roberts (1942-2006), American molecular biologist, "mother of TGF-Beta" Georgia Dwelle Rooks (20th century) Vera Rubin (1928- ) [74] Myriam Sarachik (1933- ) [75] Bice Sechi-Zorn (1928-1984) [76] Johanna Levelt Sengers [77] Patsy Sherman (20th century) Charlotte Moore Sitterly (1898-1990), American astronomer Hertha Sponer (1895-1968) [78] Phyllis Starkey (1947- ) British biochemist and medical researcher Isabelle Stone (1868-1944) [79], American thin-film physicist and educator Ida Noddack Tacke (1896-1978), German chemist and physicist Maria Telkes (1900-1995), Hungarian-American biophysicist Karen Vousden, British cancer researcher Katharine Way (1903-1995) [80] Mary Olliden Weaver (20th century), inventor Margo Wilson (1945- ), Canadian evolutionary psychologist Fiona Wood, (1958- ), British-Australian plastic surgeon Leona Woods (1919-1986), American nuclear physicist Dorothy Wrinch (1894-1976), British mathematician and theoretical biochemist Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997), Chinese-American physicist (nuclear physics, (non) conservation of parity) [81] Sau Lan Wu [82], Chinese-American particle physicist Xide Xie (Hsi-teh Hsieh) (1921-2000) [83] Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921- ), American medical physicist (Nobel prize for radioimmunoassay) [84]

[edit] See also

• Female Nobel Prize laureates
• List of female mathematicians

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Herzenberg, Caroline L. 1986. Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present: An Index. Locust Hill Press. ISBN 0-933951-01-9
• Howard S. The Hidden Giants, ch. 2, (Lulu.com; 2006) (accessed 22 August 2007)
• Howes, Ruth H. and Caroline L. Herzenberg. 1999. Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-719-7
• Ogilvie, M. B. 1986. Women in Science. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-15031-X
• Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics website at UCLA
• Walsh JJ. 'Medieval Women Physicians' in Old Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of the Students and Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages, ch. 8, (Fordham University Press; 1911) (accessed 22 August 2007)

[edit] External links

• 4000 Years of Women in Science
• Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness.

Revisions and sourced additions are welcome.