Happy Women’s History Month! We’d like to celebrate by highlighting a few important women in STEAM. Women who made an impact and changed the future of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Thank you to the women in STEAM who have made amazing discoveries, left both an emotional and informational imprint in today’s world, and helped inspire the next generation of women STEAM leaders.
Chinese scientist, Tu Youyou is best known for the discovery of artemisinin, a drug that helps treat malaria, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Tu was the first female citizen of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category.
After starting college at the age of 14, Dr. Margaret Collins went on to become the first African American woman to gain a PhD in entomology and the third African American female zoologist. Her primary area of study was termites in the Caribbean. Collins was an active civil rights activist, often blending her love of biology with her activism eventually writing “Science and the Question of Human Equality.” Her work provides an interdisciplinary look at racism and science.
Shirley Ann Jackson was a scientist and educator that helped develop technologies that made communication faster and easier. She was the first African American woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and second African American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics. Shirley was an advocate for women and minorities to get a science education.
Frida Kahlo was one of the most famous Mexican artists of the 1900’s. She is best known for her disturbing style and being a master of self-portraits. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. Frida turned to art after a near fatal accident that caused her to be bedridden for over a year. She turned to her life as inspiration for her art, painting her experiences of her injuries, her disability, and much more. Frida has been regarded as an icon for Chicanos, the feminism movement, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Nancy Roman, also known as the “Mother of Hubble,” is the pioneer of modern space-based astronomy. She showed an interest in astronomy at a very young age and decided to organize a club with her classmates when she was 11 years old. Her passion led her to pursue an impactful and impressive career in astronomy. Nancy helped develop the Hubble Space Telescope and created NASA’s space astronomy program. She was the first chief of astronomy at NASA and the first woman to hold an executive position there.