Introductions Necessary

The third women credited with the discovery of a comet, Maria Mitchell was unimpressed with her newfound celebrity preferring to continue her work as a librarian, teacher, and astronomer.

Dr. Melanie Holland planned on being a biochemist but spending her junior year on a Sea Education Association Sea Semester opened her eyes to the possibility of doing science on a boat – and she changed her plan and became an oceanographer.

Alexandra Bellow is a mathematician who has worked in probability and analysis, and was the first woman to become a full professor in the math department at Northwestern University.

A fourth generation scientist, Dr. Angela Brodie was the first to develop an aromatase inhibitor for use in breast cancer treatment.

Rachel Carson started her career as a writer for the Bureau of Fisheries as second woman hired in a full-time professional position for the agency. She would go on to write three books about the ocean and conservation before publishing her most well-known book Silent Spring – which is often credited with one of the catalysts the modern conservation movement.

On September 26, 1996 Astronaut Shannon Lucid returned to earth from her record setting fifth trip to space, and 188 days aboard the Mir space station.

Arrested at a protest at the age of 76,  Ellen Hayes had blazed a trail for the use of applied mathematics in the everyday lives of women and was also vocal in supporting the causes she was passionate about including gender equality, the rights of women to vote, and labor rights.

If you’ve spent any time observing fish or marine life in an aquarium, you can thank Jeanne Villepreux-Power, the “mother of aquaria.”

Honored in 2001 with an annual Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring cognitive psychologist Dr. Marigold Linton is an advocate for the education of Native Americans and other minorities.

Not only was Pasty O Sherman a co-inventor of the product Scotchgard, but she was the first to create an  “optical brightener” a detergent additive that allowed manufacturers to boast that their product could makes clothes “white than white.”