"You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralising invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life...."
Letter to Ellis Franklin (n.d.); cited in Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (2002)
Achievement: Invented a method to enhance underexposed photographic negatives; was awarded the title of National Inventor of the Year in 1978.
Achievement: Worked primarily to develop new ceramic materials for the field of high-temperature superconductivity, as well as in the areas of proton conductors, microelectronics, and nanotechnology.
Structure and Properties of Interfaces in Ceramics by Achievement: First African American woman to earn PhD in Chemistry.
Achievement: Worked on the crystalline structure of virus that was used by Watson and Crick to identify the structure of DNA.
Achievement: Founder of founder of protein crystallography. She used x-ray crystallography to determine the structure of insulin, penicillin and B12; awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964.
Achievement: Discovered how to synthesize ‘designer’ radioactive elements. Followed in her mother’s footsteps, winning a Nobel Prize with her husband (Chemistry, 1935).
Achievement: Created the first of a family of high-strength synthetic fibers, resulting in the invention of Kevlar.
Inventing Modern America : from the Microwave to the Mouse by Achievement: A recognized authority on refrigeration and its effect on food products.
Achievement: First woman admitted to MIT.
The Remarkable Life and Career of Ellen Swallow Richards by Achievement: Won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009) resulting from her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome.
Structural aspects of recognition and assembly in biological macromolecules
Women in chemistry : their changing roles from alchemical times to the mid-twentieth century
Chemistry was their life : pioneering British women chemists, 1880-1949 by 
Pioneering British Women Chemists: Their Lives and Contributions by 
