Mary Anning was a prolific English fossil hunter and amateur anatomist credited with the discovery of several dinosaur specimens that assisted in the early development of paleontology. Annings findings in the Jurassic marine fossil beds in Lyme Regis in Dorset contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. …
Clara Lemlich was a leader of the Uprising of 20,000, the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York’s garment industry in 1909. Lemlich was born in Gorodok, Ukraine and moved to the US in 1903 where she began working at a Lower East Side garment shop. Lemlich found the conditions appalling and began organizing …
Evelyn Cheesman was a British entomologist best known for her solo expeditions in the South Pacific where she collected over 70,000 specimens of insects, plants and animals. Cheesman became an entomologist as she was unable to fulfil her dream of becoming a veterinarian due to her gender. At the time, the Royal College of Veterinary …
Harriette Chick was a British microbiologist, protein scientist and nutritionist. She is best remembered for demonstrating the roles of sunlight and cod liver oil in preventing rickets.
Clare Hollingworth was an English journalist and author. She was the first war correspondent to report the outbreak of World War II. She was appointed OBE for “services to journalism” in 1982. Hollingworth was described as “the undisputed doyenne of war correspondents” for her “depth of technical, tactical and strategic insight”. In addition to her journalism, …
Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political philosopher who is widely considered one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century. Arendt is best known for The Origins of Totalitarianism which details her study of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes including the evils of anti-Semitism, imperialism, and racism. Her work generated a wide-ranging …
Hayat Sindi is a Saudi Arabian medical scientist and one of the first female members of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia Hayat Sindi is a biochemist who holds patents for a simple, low-tech diagnostic tool that could significantly change medical treatment in poor countries. The small, paper-like device detects disease by analyzing bodily fluids …
Flossie Wong-Staal was a molecular biologist and virologist. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS Flossie Wong-Staal was born in China and moved to the United States via Hong Kong. After attending the …
Christine Darden is a Aerospace engineer and mathematician who was responsible for developing the sonic boom research program at NASA. Darden was one of many data analysts working at NASA known as ‘human computers’ featured in Margot Lee Shetterly’s book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who …
Patricia Bath was an American ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian, and academic. Bath was an early pioneer of laser cataract surgery, and became the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose for her invention of the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986. Bath was able to help restore the sight of …