“…It soon became apparent to me that a black female with a Ph.D. in psychology was an unwanted anomaly in New Your City in the early 1940’s” 397: Mamie Phipps Clark Psychologist Born: 18 April 1917, Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States of America Died: 11 August 1983, New York City, New York, United States of…
396: Chien-Shiung Wu Experimental Physicist Born: 31 May 1912 Liuhe, Taicang, Suzhou, China Died: 16 February 1997, New York City, New York, United States of America Wu helped work with the Manhattan Project to develop the first Atomic Bombs. She also helped create a better version of the Geiger Counter. While not known for certain,…
395: Dorothy Hodgkin Biochemist and Crystallographer Born: 12 May 1910, Cairo, Egypt Died: 29 July 1994, Ilmington, United Kingdom Dorothy was the first person to create an x-ray diffraction photograph of a protein. She helped discover the structure of penicillin, Vitamin B12, and Insulin. In 1964, she was solely awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry….
394: Rita Levi-Montalcini Neurologist and Physician Born: 22 April 1909, Turin, Italy Died: 30 December 2012, Rome, Italy Rita volunteered with the Allied Health Service during World War II in her native Italy, and continued to work as a doctor in a refugee camp for a year afterward. She studied the growth of nerve fibers…
392: Maria Goeppert Mayer Theoretical Physicist Born: 28 June 1906, Kattowitz, Upper Silesia, German Empire (Present-day Katowice, Poland) Died: 20 February 1972, San Diego, California, United States of America Through her father’s side Maria was the 7th straight generational university professor. She earned her PhD in theoretical physics in 1930 but would also work in…
391: Barbara McClintock Cytogeneticist Born: 16 June 1902, Hartford, Connecticut, United States of America Died: 2 September 1992, Huntington, New York, United States of America Barbara’s early work was pioneering in the field of DNA replication (her work specifically was in maize), otherwise known as Jumping Genes. She received a PhD from Cornell University in…
“Young People, especially young women, often ask me for advice. Here it is, valeat quantum. Do not undertake a scientific career in quest of fame or money. There are easier and better ways to reach them. Undertake it only if nothing else will satisfy you; for nothing else is probably what you will receive. Your…
388: Gerty Cori Biochemist Born: 15 August 1896, Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire (Present-day Czech Republic) Died: 26 October 1957, Glendale, Missouri, United States of America Gerty received her Doctor of Medicine in 1920. She became a professor of biochemistry in 1947. Gerty and her husband worked as a research team. They extensively studied hormones and the…
387: Alice Ball Chemist Born: 24 July 1892, Seattle, Washington, United States of America Died: 31 December 1916, Seattle, Washington, United States of America Alice created the first successful treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s Disease (also known as Leprosy). She was the first woman and the first African American to graduate with an MS…
386: Marjory Stoneman Douglas Conservationist, Environmentalist, and “Mother of the Everglades” Born: 7 April 1890, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America Died: 14 May 1998, Coconut Grove, Florida, United States of America Before she began her environmental work, she started as an editor and columnist for the Miami Herald after graduating from college with an…