Physics
Today:
Updated: 3/29/2010: The
Royal Society has
unveiled
a
list of the 10 most influential women scientists in UK
history, with Caroline Herschel in first place.Women
scientists have discovered nebulas and the
first radio
pulsars, developed
spray-on
skin for burn victims, pioneered cancer-beating therapies,
created
cutting-edge
computer chips, and
won
Nobel Prizes, but as the Royal Society lauds past women
scientists, their contemporaries are still facing a number of
difficulties, including being asked to make the tea and take
notes at meetings by their male colleagues.A
survey
of US science education by the Bayer Corporation reports
that "significant numbers of women and underrepresented
minority chemists and chemical engineers say they were
discouraged from pursuing" a career in science and engineering
at some point in their lives"Some letters
were
published in the
New York Times
on the 28 March 2010 on this very
issue.Have you noticed any improvements in how women scientists
have been treated at your institution? Physics Today would like
to know. Contact us in the comment box below.
The Royal Society list
1.
Caroline
Herschel (1750–1848), astronomer and discoverer of
eight comets (image right). The first woman scientist to
receive a salary. Received the
1828
gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, of which she
became an honorary member in 1835. At the age of 96 she was
awarded the gold medal of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in
1846.2.
Mary
Somerville (1780–1872), best known for her work on
magnetism. Somerville was the first woman to have a
scientific paper
published in the Royal Society's
Philosophical Transactions. Her textbook on
Physical
Geography
(published when she was 68) remained widely used for the
next 50 years.3.
Mary
Anning (1799–1847), early British fossil collector
and paleontologist. Anning was not widely credited for her
research, despite making important finds such as the first
correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton and the first two
plesiosaur skeletons ever found. Despite this she became well
known in geological circles in the UK and beyond, although she
struggled financially for much of her life. After her death her
enormous contribution to paleontology was largely forgotten.4.
Elizabeth
Garrett Anderson (1836–1917). physician. She was the
first Englishwoman to qualify as a doctor after finding a
loophole in the rules. Medical schools immediately changed the
rules to stop other women becoming doctors. Anderson then spent
many years campaigning to pass an act of Parliament, which in
1876 permitted women to enter the profession.
5.
Hertha
Ayrton (1854–1923). mathematician and physicist
(image right).Working with her husband, William Ayrton, she
became an expert on the subject of the electric ark and
published
several papers from her own research in the
Proceedings
of the Royal Society of London
and the
Electrician
. She published her widely acclaimed work
The
Electric Arc
in 1902.Ayrton was elected the first female member of the
Institution of Electrical
Engineers in 1899. In 1902 she became the first woman
nominated a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, although
because she was married she could not be elected.In 1904 Ayrton
became the first woman to read her own paper before the Royal
Society on '
The origin and growth
of ripple-mark'. She received the
Royal Society's
Hughes Medal for her investigations in 1906.
6.
Kathleen
Lonsdale (1903–1971). crystallographer. (photo credit
AIP History Center).At the age of 16, she enrolled in Bedford
College for Women in London, where in 1922 she received a BS in
mathematics and physics.
William
Henry Bragg, the
1915
Nobel laureate in physics, was so impressed with her
academic performance that he invited her to work with him and a
team of scientists using x-ray technology to explore the
crystal structure of organic compounds. Londsdale worked with
Bragg intermittently until his death in 1942.In 1945, Lonsdale
was the first woman, along with microbiologist Marjory
Stephenson, admitted as a fellow to the Royal Society. She was
the first female professor at University College, London; the
first woman named president of the
International Union of
Crystallography; and the first woman to hold the post of
president of the
British
Association for the Advancement of Science. She accepted
her achievements as a pioneering woman scientist with
characteristic humility. In 1966, the "
lonsdaleite,"
a rare form of meteoric diamond, was named for her.Lonsdale and
her husband, Thomas Jackson Lonsdale were committed pacifists.
They worked toward world peace, as well as prison reform.
During World War II, she and her husband gave shelter to
refugees, and in 1943 Lonsdale spent a month in jail for
refusing to register for war duties and then refusing to pay a
fine of two pounds. In 1956, she wrote a book in reaction to
extensive nuclear testing by the US, the Soviet Union, and the
UK entitled
Is
Peace Possible?
7.
Elsie
Widdowson (1908-2000), chemist and nutritionist. Widdowson
studied chemistry at Imperial College London and took the BSc
examination after only two years. As a graduate she worked with
Helen Archbold (later Helen Porter, FRS). She took doctorates
at Imperial College and at the Courtauld Institute of
Biochemistry, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976,
and in 1993 a Companion of Honor.Widdowson specialized in the
scientific analysis of food and nutrition and the relationship
between diet before and after birth and its effects on
development.Along with RA McCance, she discovered that
contemporary nutritional tables were substantially wrong which
eventually helped revolutionize how nutritional values, dietary
deficiencies and mammalian development were perceived.Widdowson
was a consultant on how to remedy the effects of gross
starvation suffered by Nazi concentration camp victims and
later investigated the effects of different types of bread on
the recovery rates of malnourished children in the general
population of Germany.
8.
Dorothy
Hodgkin (1910–1994) crystallographer (image
right).Dorothy Hodgkin (née Crowfoot) read for a degree in
chemistry at Somerville College, University of Oxford in 1928.
In 1932 she moved to the University of Cambridge to carry out
doctoral research. In physicist
John
Desmond Bernal's laboratory, she extended his work on
biological molecules, including sterols (the subject of her
thesis), and helped him to make the first x-ray diffraction
studies of pepsin, a crystalline protein. She returned to
Oxford in 1934 where she remained until her retirement in 1977.
Crowfoot established an x-ray laboratory in a corner of the
Oxford University Museum of Natural History and almost
immediately began work taking x-ray photographs of insulin.In
1939 when Australian pathologist Howard Florey and his
colleagues at Oxford succeeded in isolating penicillin, they
asked Hodgkin to solve its structure. By 1945 she had
succeeded, describing the arrangement of its atoms in three
dimensions. Hodgkin's work on penicillin was recognized by her
election to the Royal Society, in 1947, only two years after a
woman had been elected for the first time. In the
mid–1950s, Hodgkin discovered the structure of vitamin
B12.Nominated more than once for the Nobel Prize, she
won
in 1964 for her work on penicillin and vitamin B12. The
following year she was made a member of the Order of Merit, in
recognition of her contribution to science.Hodgkin devoted much
of the latter part of her life to the cause of scientists in
developing countries, especially China and India, and to
improved East–West relations and disarmament. From 1975
to 1988 she was president of the
Pugwash Conferences on
Science and World Affairs.
9.
Rosalind
Franklin (1920–1958). scientist (image
right).Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a biophysicist, physicist,
chemist, biologist, and x-ray crystallographer who made
contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular
structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She went
to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and passed her finals in
1941, but was only awarded a degree titular as women were not
entitled to degrees at that time. She received a PhD from Ohio
University in 1945.Franklin is best known for her work on the
x-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data was a part of the
data used to formulate
Crick
and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of
DNA. Unpublished drafts of her papers show that she had
determined the overall B-form of the DNA helix. Her work
supported the hypothesis of Watson and Crick and was published
third in the series of three DNA
Nature articles. After finishing her portion of the
DNA work, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic
and polio viruses. Franklin died from ovarian cancer at the age
of 37, four years before Crick, Watson, and Wilkins were
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their work on DNA. Franklin
was unable to receive the prize as Nobel Prizes cannot be
awarded posthumously, but she received no mention in the
acceptance speeches. Although Franklin's contribution to the
"discovery" of DNA is now widely recognized, there remains a
lingering sense that her contribution was unjustly overlooked
and undervalued. Her contribution was not recognized in many
science books until the 1990s.10.
Anne
McLaren (1927-2007). biologist and geneticist.An
exceptional scientist, Anne McLaren made fundamental advances
in genetics that paved the way for the development of in vitro
fertilization. Her groundbreaking work led to the birth of the
first test-tube baby.McLaren read zoology at Oxford University,
where she studied the genetics of rabbits. As a researcher in
London she worked with mice, studying the effects of super
ovulation on fertility. Working with John Biggers, she produced
the first litter of mice grown from eggs that had developed in
tissue culture and then been transferred to a surrogate mother,
paving the way for embryo transfer in human IVF.In the 1960s
and 1970s, Dame Anne was involved in pioneering research into
immuno-contraception, DNA hybridization and chimeras. From
1974, she was director of the MRC Mammalian Development Unit at
UCL until her retirement in 1992.Aside from her scientific
achievements, she was committed to negotiating the ethical and
legal implications of genetics research. She encouraged honest
discussion and believed science needed to engage the public to
gain its trust. Later, at the Gurdon Institute, she continued
research on stem cells.She became the first female officer of
the Royal Society in 331 years, when she was appointed as their
foreign secretary between 1991–1996 and travelled widely,
becoming a role model for women in science.Paul
GuinnessyRelated link
Current
UK women scientists who are influenial The
Independent
1.
Caroline
Herschel (1750–1848), astronomer and discoverer of
eight comets (image right). The first woman scientist to
receive a salary. Received the
1828
gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, of which she
became an honorary member in 1835. At the age of 96 she was
awarded the gold medal of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in
1846.2.
Mary
Somerville (1780–1872), best known for her work on
magnetism. Somerville was the first woman to have a
scientific paper
published in the Royal Society's
Philosophical Transactions. Her textbook on
Physical
Geography
(published when she was 68) remained widely used for the
next 50 years.3.
Mary
Anning (1799–1847), early British fossil collector
and paleontologist. Anning was not widely credited for her
research, despite making important finds such as the first
correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton and the first two
plesiosaur skeletons ever found. Despite this she became well
known in geological circles in the UK and beyond, although she
struggled financially for much of her life. After her death her
enormous contribution to paleontology was largely forgotten.4.
Elizabeth
Garrett Anderson (1836–1917). physician. She was the
first Englishwoman to qualify as a doctor after finding a
loophole in the rules. Medical schools immediately changed the
rules to stop other women becoming doctors. Anderson then spent
many years campaigning to pass an act of Parliament, which in
1876 permitted women to enter the profession.
5.
Hertha
Ayrton (1854–1923). mathematician and physicist
(image right).Working with her husband, William Ayrton, she
became an expert on the subject of the electric ark and
published
several papers from her own research in the
Proceedings
of the Royal Society of London
and the
Electrician
. She published her widely acclaimed work
The
Electric Arc
in 1902.Ayrton was elected the first female member of the
Institution of Electrical
Engineers in 1899. In 1902 she became the first woman
nominated a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, although
because she was married she could not be elected.In 1904 Ayrton
became the first woman to read her own paper before the Royal
Society on '
The origin and growth
of ripple-mark'. She received the
Royal Society's
Hughes Medal for her investigations in 1906.
6.
Kathleen
Lonsdale (1903–1971). crystallographer. (photo credit
AIP History Center).At the age of 16, she enrolled in Bedford
College for Women in London, where in 1922 she received a BS in
mathematics and physics.
William
Henry Bragg, the
1915
Nobel laureate in physics, was so impressed with her
academic performance that he invited her to work with him and a
team of scientists using x-ray technology to explore the
crystal structure of organic compounds. Londsdale worked with
Bragg intermittently until his death in 1942.In 1945, Lonsdale
was the first woman, along with microbiologist Marjory
Stephenson, admitted as a fellow to the Royal Society. She was
the first female professor at University College, London; the
first woman named president of the
International Union of
Crystallography; and the first woman to hold the post of
president of the
British
Association for the Advancement of Science. She accepted
her achievements as a pioneering woman scientist with
characteristic humility. In 1966, the "
lonsdaleite,"
a rare form of meteoric diamond, was named for her.Lonsdale and
her husband, Thomas Jackson Lonsdale were committed pacifists.
They worked toward world peace, as well as prison reform.
During World War II, she and her husband gave shelter to
refugees, and in 1943 Lonsdale spent a month in jail for
refusing to register for war duties and then refusing to pay a
fine of two pounds. In 1956, she wrote a book in reaction to
extensive nuclear testing by the US, the Soviet Union, and the
UK entitled
Is
Peace Possible?
7.
Elsie
Widdowson (1908-2000), chemist and nutritionist. Widdowson
studied chemistry at Imperial College London and took the BSc
examination after only two years. As a graduate she worked with
Helen Archbold (later Helen Porter, FRS). She took doctorates
at Imperial College and at the Courtauld Institute of
Biochemistry, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976,
and in 1993 a Companion of Honor.Widdowson specialized in the
scientific analysis of food and nutrition and the relationship
between diet before and after birth and its effects on
development.Along with RA McCance, she discovered that
contemporary nutritional tables were substantially wrong which
eventually helped revolutionize how nutritional values, dietary
deficiencies and mammalian development were perceived.Widdowson
was a consultant on how to remedy the effects of gross
starvation suffered by Nazi concentration camp victims and
later investigated the effects of different types of bread on
the recovery rates of malnourished children in the general
population of Germany.
8.
Dorothy
Hodgkin (1910–1994) crystallographer (image
right).Dorothy Hodgkin (née Crowfoot) read for a degree in
chemistry at Somerville College, University of Oxford in 1928.
In 1932 she moved to the University of Cambridge to carry out
doctoral research. In physicist
John
Desmond Bernal's laboratory, she extended his work on
biological molecules, including sterols (the subject of her
thesis), and helped him to make the first x-ray diffraction
studies of pepsin, a crystalline protein. She returned to
Oxford in 1934 where she remained until her retirement in 1977.
Crowfoot established an x-ray laboratory in a corner of the
Oxford University Museum of Natural History and almost
immediately began work taking x-ray photographs of insulin.In
1939 when Australian pathologist Howard Florey and his
colleagues at Oxford succeeded in isolating penicillin, they
asked Hodgkin to solve its structure. By 1945 she had
succeeded, describing the arrangement of its atoms in three
dimensions. Hodgkin's work on penicillin was recognized by her
election to the Royal Society, in 1947, only two years after a
woman had been elected for the first time. In the
mid–1950s, Hodgkin discovered the structure of vitamin
B12.Nominated more than once for the Nobel Prize, she
won
in 1964 for her work on penicillin and vitamin B12. The
following year she was made a member of the Order of Merit, in
recognition of her contribution to science.Hodgkin devoted much
of the latter part of her life to the cause of scientists in
developing countries, especially China and India, and to
improved East–West relations and disarmament. From 1975
to 1988 she was president of the
Pugwash Conferences on
Science and World Affairs.
9.
Rosalind
Franklin (1920–1958). scientist (image
right).Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a biophysicist, physicist,
chemist, biologist, and x-ray crystallographer who made
contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular
structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She went
to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938 and passed her finals in
1941, but was only awarded a degree titular as women were not
entitled to degrees at that time. She received a PhD from Ohio
University in 1945.Franklin is best known for her work on the
x-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data was a part of the
data used to formulate
Crick
and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of
DNA. Unpublished drafts of her papers show that she had
determined the overall B-form of the DNA helix. Her work
supported the hypothesis of Watson and Crick and was published
third in the series of three DNA
Nature articles. After finishing her portion of the
DNA work, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic
and polio viruses. Franklin died from ovarian cancer at the age
of 37, four years before Crick, Watson, and Wilkins were
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their work on DNA. Franklin
was unable to receive the prize as Nobel Prizes cannot be
awarded posthumously, but she received no mention in the
acceptance speeches. Although Franklin's contribution to the
"discovery" of DNA is now widely recognized, there remains a
lingering sense that her contribution was unjustly overlooked
and undervalued. Her contribution was not recognized in many
science books until the 1990s.10.
Anne
McLaren (1927-2007). biologist and geneticist.An
exceptional scientist, Anne McLaren made fundamental advances
in genetics that paved the way for the development of in vitro
fertilization. Her groundbreaking work led to the birth of the
first test-tube baby.McLaren read zoology at Oxford University,
where she studied the genetics of rabbits. As a researcher in
London she worked with mice, studying the effects of super
ovulation on fertility. Working with John Biggers, she produced
the first litter of mice grown from eggs that had developed in
tissue culture and then been transferred to a surrogate mother,
paving the way for embryo transfer in human IVF.In the 1960s
and 1970s, Dame Anne was involved in pioneering research into
immuno-contraception, DNA hybridization and chimeras. From
1974, she was director of the MRC Mammalian Development Unit at
UCL until her retirement in 1992.Aside from her scientific
achievements, she was committed to negotiating the ethical and
legal implications of genetics research. She encouraged honest
discussion and believed science needed to engage the public to
gain its trust. Later, at the Gurdon Institute, she continued
research on stem cells.She became the first female officer of
the Royal Society in 331 years, when she was appointed as their
foreign secretary between 1991–1996 and travelled widely,
becoming a role model for women in science.Paul
GuinnessyRelated link
Current
UK women scientists who are influenial The
Independent
