Adriana Ocampo

Instrumental in the discovery of the Chicxulub Crater, led missions to Jupiter, Pluto, and others

Alice Ball

Revolutionized treatment for leprosy in the early 20th century, and became one of the first female chemistry professors in the U.S.

Barbara McClintock

Discovered genetic transposition (jumping genes)
for which she received a Nobel Prize

Beatrix Potter

Produced over 300 scientific illustrations of fungus, mosses, and spores, documenting many unknown or speculated phenomena and furthering the field of Mycology

Caroline Herschel

Meticulously cataloged the night sky in the late 1700s, discovering over 20 comets and nebulae

Cecelia Payne

Determined that stars are composed of primarily hydrogen and helium

Chien Shiung Wu

Developed the isolation process for U-235,
Worked on the Manhattan Project

E. Lucy Braun

Showed how plants adapt to the environment; early advocate for environmental conservation

Florence Nightingale

Used statistics to tie hygiene to healthcare
Founder of Modern Nursing

Grace Hopper

Created the foundation for most modern computing languages

Hedy Lamarr

Created the technological basis for wifi and GPS

Jane Goodall

Studied chimpanzees in their natural habitats for over 60 years, revealing their ability to make and use tools.

Joan Clarke

Cracked Nazi Germany’s Enigma ciphers as a codebreaker during WW2

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Discovered Pulsars, radio waves emitted from neutron stars

Katherine Johnson

Calculated orbital trajectories required to put NASA’s astronauts in space

Lise Meitner

Discovered Nuclear Fission, Isolated radioactive isotope protactinium-231

Mae Jemison

Orbited the earth aboard the Endeavor, to become the first Black woman in space

Maria Sibylla Merian

Transformed the fields of Botany and Zoology by collecting and observing live specimens of butterflies and insects rather than preserved specimens

Marie Curie

Discovered the first radioactive elements,
Polonium and Radium

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