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STEM Educators Guide: Women in STEM: Biology

Quote: Jane Goodall

"Every individual matters, Every individual has a role to play, Every individual makes a difference".

With Love by Jane Goodall (2003)

Biologists

Achievement: First woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon; co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women.

Achievement: Developed the first synthetic antigen and the first drug approved for treating multiple sclerosis, Copaxone.

Achievement: First African American to receive degree in Ophthamology. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Class of 2022.

Achievement: First American female doctor to received diploma.

Achievement: Sister of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell; also earned a degree in medicine.

Achievement: Co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine), for her discovery of unique telomeres and telomerase.

Achievement: Works on stem cells and regenerative medicine; director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University (CA). Co-inventor on over 20 patents.

Biologists (last name C-E)

Achievement: Carson's book Silent Spring warned of the use of pesticides on nature really for the first time. 

Achievement: Grass Specialist. 

Achievement: Studied the effects of segregation and racism on the self- esteem of black children.

Achievement: The first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1947); also the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science.

Achievement: First African American woman to receive a degree in Medicine.

Achievement: Preserving and restoring the Florida Everglades.

Achievement: First female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Biologists

Achievement: American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her 1985.

Achievement: Co-discovered telomerase, an enzyme that is key to the ageing process.  2009 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine (with co-discoverer Elizabeth Blackburn).

Achievement: Botanist and leader in first women's Army corp.

Achievement: Thought to be the founder of feminine psychiatry focusing on the psychiatric treatment of women.

Achievement: Successfully sought legislation to allow women to receive degrees and license to practice medicine and surgery.

Achievement: Developed Lambda Phage markers on gel used in microbiology.

Achievement: Research in neuroembryology- had to flee Italy as a Jewish woman. Received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1986).

Achievement: Discovery of jumping genes (transposons); won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1983.

Achievement: Renowned botanical and natural history artist.

Achievement: Nobel Prize 2014 "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain."

Biologists (last name N-Z)

Achievement: British nurse, statistician, and social reformer who was the foundational philosopher of modern nursing; nicknamed “Lady with the Lamp", doing night rounds at the hospital camps during the Crimean War.

Achievement: First female curator of reptiles at the London Zoo.

Achievement: Discovery of sex determination by chromosomes.

Achievement: First African American women to be named associate dean of a medical school and pioneering work as oncologist.

Achievement: First Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize (2015), for her work in helping to create an anti-malaria medicine.

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