7 Women Scientists Who Changed Science Forever

woman in protective gear looking into a microscope

This Newsweek piece that was released for International Women’s Day highlights seven women who have defied the odds within STEM fields (only around 30 percent of STEM researchers globally are women). The article features some well known women and some women that you might not have heard of yet.

  • Rachel Carson – author of Silent Spring and launcher of environmental movement
  • Tu Youyou – Nobel prize winner for her work in anti-malarial medicine
  • Kizzmekia Corbett – co-developer of the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine
  • Barbara McClintock – Nobel Prize winner for her work in better understanding how genetic elements can move on chromosomes
  • Susan Band Horwitz – co-developer of the drug Taxol which helps treat breast, ovarian and lung cancer
  • Sally Ride – astronaut and physicist – also the first American female and youngest American to travel to space
  • Isabella Akyinbah Quakyi – immunologist who focuses in tropical medicine