Women in chemistry
This is a list of women chemists. It should include those who have been important to the development or practice of chemistry. Their research or application has made significant contributions in the area of basic or applied chemistry.
Nobel Laureates[1]
![](../I/m/Marie_Curie_c1920.jpg)
- 2018 – Frances Arnold - directed evolution to engineer enzymes
- 2009 – Ada E. Yonath - structure & function of the ribosome
- 1964 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - protein crystallography
- 1935 – Irène Joliot-Curie - artificial radioactivity
- 1911 – Marie Sklodowska-Curie - discovery of radium & polonium
Five women have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (listed above), awarded annually since 1901 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Marie Curie was the first woman to receive the prize in 1911, which was her second Nobel Prize (she also won the prize in physics in 1903, along with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel - making her the only woman to be award two Nobel prizes). Her prize in chemistry was for her "discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." Irene Joliot-Curie, Marie's daughter, became the second woman to be awarded this prize in 1935 for her discovery of artificial radioactivity. Dorothy Hodgkin won the prize in 1964 for the development of protein crystallography. Among her significant discoveries are the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12. Forty five years later, Ada Yonath shared the prize with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for the study of the structure and function of the ribosome.
L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science Laureates (Chemistry)
- 2015 - Xie Yi (Asia-Pacific) - inorganic chemistry
- 2015 - Molly S. Shoichet (North America) - photochemistry
- 2011 - Faiza Al-Harafi (Africa/Arab States) - electrochemistry
List of Women Chemists
19th Century
- Vera Bogdanovskaia (1868-1897), one of the first female Russian chemists
- Gerty Cori (1896-1957) Jewis Czech-American biochemist who was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in science
- Ida Freund (1863-1914), first woman to be a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom
- Louise Hammarström (1849–1917), Swedish mineral chemist, first formally trained female Swedish chemist
- Edith Humphrey (1875–1978), inorganic chemist, probably the first British woman to gain a doctorate in chemistry
- Julia Lermontova (1846-1919), Russian chemist, first Russian female doctorate in chemistry
- Laura Linton (1853-1915), American chemist, teacher, & physician
- Rachel Lloyd (1839-1900) - first American female to earn a doctorate in chemistry, first regularly admitted female member of the American Chemical Society, studied sugar beets
- Muriel Wheldale Onslow (1880–1932), British biochemist
- Marie Pasteur (1826–1910), French chemist and bacteriologist
- Mary Engle Pennington (1872–1952), American chemist
- Agnes Pockels (1862-1935), German chemist
- Vera Popova (1867–1896), Russian chemist
- Anna Sundström (1785–1871), Swedish chemist
- Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911), American industrial and environmental chemist
- Anna Volkova (1800–1876), Russian chemist
- Nadezhda Olimpievna Ziber-Shumova (d. 1914), Russian chemist
- Fanny Rysan Mulford Hitchcock (1851-1936), one of thirteen women to graduate with a degree in Chemistry in the 1800s, and the first to graduate with a doctorate in Philosophy of Chemistry. Her areas of focus were in entomology, fish osteology, and plant pathology.[2]
20th Century
- Nancy Allbritton, American analytical and biochemist
- Valerie Ashby, American Chemist
- Barbara Askins (1939-), American chemist
- Alice Ball (1892-1916), American chemist
- Carolyn Bertozzi (1966-), American biochemist
- Asima Chatterjee (1917-2006) Indian Organic Chemist
- Astrid Cleve (1875-1968), Swedish chemist
- Mildred Cohn (1913-2009), American chemist
- Janine Cossy (1950-), French Organic Chemist
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867–1934), Polish-French chemist (pioneer in radiology, discovery of polonium and radium), Nobel prize in physics 1903 and Nobel prize in chemistry 1911
- Jillian Lee Dempsey (1983-), American chemist
- Vy M. Dong, American Organic Chemist
- Abigail Doyle (1980-), American Organic Chemist
- Odile Eisenstein (1949-), French, Theoretical chemist
- Gertrude B. Elion (1918-1999), American biochemist (Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine 1988 for drug development)
- Margaret Faul, Irish/American Organic Chemist
- Mary Peters Fieser (1909-1997) American Organic Chemist
- Rosalind Franklin (1920-1957), British Physical chemist and crystallographer
- Helen Murray Free (1923-), American chemist
- Gunda I. Georg, German trained Medicinal chemist, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the US
- Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968), Norwegian radiochemist
- Anna J. Harrison (1912-1998), American Organic chemist
- Darleane C. Hoffman (1926-), American Nuclear chemist
- Icie Hoobler (1892-1984), American Biochemist
- Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), British crystallographer, Nobel prize in chemistry 1964
- Clara Immerwahr (1870-1915), German chemist
- Allene Rosland Jeanes (1906-1995), American Organic chemist
- Malika Jeffries-EL, American Organic Chemist
- Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), French chemist and nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1935
- Madeleine M. Joullié (1927-), Brazilian, American Organic Chemist
- Isabella Karle (1921-), American Crystallographer
- Joyce Jacobson Kaufman (1929-) American Chemist, Pharmacologist
- Judith Klinman (1941-) American Biochemist
- Stephanie Kwolek (1923-), American chemist, inventor of Kevlar
- Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971), British crystallographer
- Yvonne Connolly Martin (1936-) American physical biochemist working on cheminformatics and computer-aided drug design in the US
- Cynthia A. Maryanoff (1949-) American Organic/Medicinal Chemist
- Elizabeth Moran, British chemist and public analyst
- Maud Menten (1879–1960), Canadian biochemist
- Helen Vaughn Michel (1932-), American nuclear chemist
- Alexandra Navrotsky (1943-), American Geochemist
- Dorothy Virginia Nightingale (1902-2000), American Organic Chemist
- Emma Parmee, British born Medicinal/Organic Chemist
- Mary Engle Pennington (1872-1952), American food chemist
- Eva Philbin (1914–2005), Irish chemist
- Darshan Ranganathan (1941-2001), Indian Organic chemist
- Mildred Rebstock (1919-2011), American Pharmaceutical chemist
- Sibyl Martha Rock (1909-1981), American pioneer in mass spectrometry and computing
- Elizabeth Rona (1890-1981), Hungarian (naturalized American) nuclear chemist and polonium expert
- Mary Swartz Rose (1874-1941), Nutrition chemist
- Melanie Sanford (1975–), American Organic chemist
- Maxine L. Savitz (1937-), Organic and Electrochemist
- Patsy Sherman (1930-2008), American chemist, co-inventor of Scotchgard
- Odette L. Shotwell (1922-1998), Organic chemist
- Jean'ne Shreeve (1933-), American Organic chemist
- Dorothy M. Simon (1919-), American Physical chemist
- Susan Solomon (1956-), Atmospheric chemist
- JoAnne Stubbe (1946-), American Biochemist
- Ida Noddack Tacke (1896–1978), German chemist and physicist
- Giuliana Tesoro (1921-2002), Polymer chemist
- Jean Thomas, British biochemist (chromatin)
- Martha J. B. Thomas (1926-2006), Analytical chemist and chemical engineer
- Ann E. Weber, American Organic/Medicinal Chemist
- Karen Wetterhahn (1948-1997), American metal toxicologist
- Ruth R. Wexler, American Organic/Medicinal Chemist
- M. Christina White, American Organometallic chemist
- Charlotte Williams, English Inorganic Chemist
- Angela K. Wilson, American computational, theoretical, and physical chemist
- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921-2011), American Biochemist
- Jean Youatt(1925-), Australian chemist, biochemist, and microbiologist
- Ada Yonath (1939-), Israeli crystallographer, Nobel prize in Chemistry 2009
- Glaci Zancan (1935-2007), Brazilian Biochemist, president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of the Science (SBPC) from 1999-2003
21st Century
- Rachel Haurwitz (1985–), American biochemist and structural biologist
- Sarah E Reisman, American Organic Chemist
References
- ↑ "Nobel Prize Awarded Women". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
- ↑ Creese, Mary (1998). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of their Research (1st ed.). Lanham, MD & London: The Scarecrow Press. p. 256. ISBN 0810832879.