Jacqueline Barton - (USA, born 1952) Jacqueline Barton probes DNA with electrons. She uses custom-made molecules to locate genes and study their arrangement. She has shown that some damaged DNA molecules do not conduct electricity.
Ruth Benerito - (USA, born 1916) Ruth Benerito invented wash-and-wear cotton fabric. Chemical treatment of the cotton surface not only reduced wrinkles, but could be used to make it flame resistant and stain resistant.
Ruth Erica Benesch - (1925-2000) Ruth Benesch and her husband Reinhold made a discovery that helped explain how hemoglobin releases oxygen in the body. They learned that carbon dioxide functions as an indicator molecule, causing hemoglobin to release oxygen where carbon dioxide concentrations are high.
Joan Berkowitz - (USA, born 1931) Joan Berkowitz is a chemist and environmental consultant. She uses her command of chemistry to help solve problems with pollution and industrial waste.
Carolyn Bertozzi - (USA, born 1966) Carolyn Bertozzi has helped design artificial bones that are less likely to cause reactions or lead to rejection than their predecessors. She has helped create contact lenses that are better-tolerated by the cornea of the eye.
Hazel Bishop - (USA, 1906–1998) Hazel Bishop is the inventor of smear-proof lipstick. In 1971, Hazel Bishop became the first female member of the Chemists’ Club in New York.
Corale Brierley
Stephanie Burns
Mary Letitia Caldwell
Emma Perry Carr - (USA, 1880–1972) Emma Carr helped to make Mount Holyoke, a women's college, into a chemistry research center. She offered undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct their own original resarch.
Uma Chowdhry
Pamela Clark
Mildred Cohn
Gerty Theresa Cori
Shirley O. Corriher
Erika Cremer
Marie Curie - Marie Curie pioneered radioactivity research. She was the first two-time Nobel laureate and the only person to win the award in two different sciences (Linus Pauling won Chemistry and Peace). She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Marie Curie was the first female professor at the Sorbonne.
Iréne Joliot-Curie - Iréne Joliot-Curie was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for synthesis of new radioactive elements. The prize was shared jointly with her husband Jean Frédéric Joliot.
Marie Daly - (USA, 1921–2003) In 1947, Marie Daly became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. The majority of her career was spent as a college professor. In addition to her research, she developed programs to attract and aid minority students in medical and graduate school.
Kathryn Hach Darrow
Cecile Hoover Edwards
Gertrude Belle Elion
Gladys L. A. Emerson
Mary Fieser
Edith Flanigen - (USA, born 1929) In the 1960s, Edith Flanigen invented a process for making synthetic emeralds. In addition to their use for making beautiful jewelry, the perfect emeralds made it possible to make powerful microwave lasers. In 1992, Flanigen received the first Perkin Medal ever awarded to a woman, for her work synthesizing zeolites.
Linda K. Ford
Rosalind Franklin - (Great Britain, 1920–1958) Rosalind Franklin used x-ray crystallography to see the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick used her data to propose the double-stranded helical structure of the DNA molecule. The Nobel Prize could only be awarded to living persons, so she could not be included when Watson and Crick were formally recognized with the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. She also used x-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus.
Helen M. Free
Dianne D. Gates-Anderson
Mary Lowe Good
Barbara Grant
Alice Hamilton - (USA, 1869–1970) Alice Hamilton was a chemist and physician who directed the first governmental commission to investigate industrial hazards in the workplace, such as exposure to dangerous chemicals. Because of her work, laws were passed to protect employees from occupational hazards. In 1919 she became the first female faculty member of Harvard Medical School.
Anna Harrison
Gladys Hobby
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin (Great Britain) was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using x-rays to determine the structure of biologically important molecules.
Darleane Hoffman
M. Katharine Holloway - (USA, born 1957) M. Katharine Holloway and Chen Zhao are two of the chemists who developed protease inhibitors to inactivate the HIV virus, greatly extending the lives of AIDS patients.
Linda L. Huff
Allene Rosalind Jeanes
Mae Jemison - (USA, born 1956) Mae Jemison is a retired medical doctor and American astronaut. In 1992, she became the first black woman in space. She holds a degree in chemical engineering from Stanford and a degree in medicine from Cornell. She remains very active in science and technology.
Fran Keeth
Laura Kiessling
Reatha Clark King
Judith Klinman
Stephanie Kwolek
Marie-Anne Lavoisier - (France, circa 1780) Lavoisier's wife was his colleague. She translated documents from English for him and prepared sketches and engravings of laboratory instruments. She hosted parties at which prominent scientists could discuss chemistry and other scientific ideas.
Rachel Lloyd
Shannon Lucid - (USA, born 1943) Shannon Lucid as an American biochemist and US astronaut. For a while, she held the American record for the most time in space. She studies the effects of space on human health, often using her own body as a test subject.
Mary Lyon - (USA, 1797–1849) Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, one of the first women's colleges. At the time, most colleges taught chemistry as a lecture-only class. Lyon made lab exercises and experiments an integral part of undergraduate chemistry education. Her method became popular. Most modern chemistry classes include a lab component.
Lena Qiying Ma
Jane Marcet
The list of famous women in chemistry is continued...
