Anastasia Golovina
Anastasia Golovina was Bulgaria’s first woman doctor, earning her doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1878.
Category Archives: Science
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Gertrud Woker
Gertrud Johanna Woker was a Swiss suffragist, biochemist, toxicologist and peace activist.
Tebello Nyokong
South African chemist and professor Tebello Nyokong is helping to pioneer a safer method of cancer detection and photodynamic therapy, a treatment without the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.
Rapelang Rabana
Rapelang Rabana is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and speaker who founded the learning technology company Rekindle Learning in 2013.
Qian Xiuling
Qian Xiuling was a Chinese-Belgian scientist who saved nearly 100 lives during World War II.
Dr Yvonne Sylvain
Dr Yvonne Sylvain was the first female doctor from Haiti and the first woman accepted into the University of Haiti Medical School, earning her medical degree in 1940. She played a vital role in providing improved medical access and tools for Haitian citizens and was a leading advocate for the physical, economical, social and political equality of Haitian women.
Dr Vera Peters
Canadian oncologist and clinical investigator Dr Mildred Vera Peters was told to “go do women’s work” after upstaging the medical community in her treatment of Hodgkin’s disease. So she revolutionized breast cancer treatment through years of painstaking, meticulous work.
Tsai Ah-hsin
Tsai Ah-hsin was the first female physician in colonial Taiwan’s first female physician. She graduated from the Tokyo Women’s Medical College in 1921, then completed her residency at the Taihoku Hospital in Japanese Taiwan and founded her own hospital at Taichu in 1925. She created a seminar to train midwives in obstetrics, which was offered through her hospital. She had to end the seminar in 1938 as the Japanese, who had invaded northern China in 1937, came to her seminar and forced some of her students to work for them as nurses on the front lines.
The serial drama “Wave Washing Sands,” based on her life, won Best Serial Drama at the Golden Bell Awards (celebrating Taiwanese television) in 2005.
Alejandra Melfo
Alejandra Melfo is a Venezuelan physicist, known for her efforts studying and conserving glaciers, especially the Humboldt Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela.
Nancy Grace Roman
Nancy Grace Roman is an astronomer who was the first women executive at the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She is known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her contributions in establishing the Hubble Space Telescope, and has been an outspoken advocate for women in the sciences throughout her career.
Although Roman showed interest and talent in the sciences from an early age, like so many women she was discouraged by teachers at all levels who thought women shouldn’t study science. Despite this, Roman earned a Bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Swarthmore College in 1946, and finished her PhD in astronomy at the University of Chicago in 1949, where she stayed on for six years working as a researcher and instructor, eventually leaving because of the limited opportunities for women.
Roman worked at the Naval Research Laboratory before being hired by newly formed NASA in 1959 to build the organization’s astronomy program. Roman worked at NASA for 21 years, then worked as a consultant for companies contracted with NASA. She fully retired in 1997, and began extensive volunteer work, such as leading science programs in underserved Washington, D.C. schools.
Roman discovered the first clues to the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, mapped the sky and helped improve the accuracy of measurements of the distance of the moon. Roman led a NASA program that launched more than 20 satellites and 3 orbiting solar observatories. She laid the early groundwork for the Hubble Space Telescope, creating the program’s structure, recruiting astronomers, and lobbying Congress for funding. Her many awards and honors include The Federal Woman’s Award (1962), NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award (1969), and a NASA fellowship in astrophysics is named in her honor.