12 Prominent Women in STEM Who Shaped History

As a fem in STEM, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day and forget about the advances we’ve made in diversity and inclusion throughout history and modern times.

In an effort to honor how far we’ve come, let us give tribute to the fems in STEM who have changed the course of history and made major contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Their groundbreaking work has had a lasting impact on the world as we know it.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

An English mathematician and writer who is credited as being the first computer programmer. In 1842, she wrote a set of instructions for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a machine that was designed to perform mathematical calculations. This makes her not only the first programmer but also the first person to recognize the potential of computers. 

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

A Polish chemist and physicist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. In 1898, she discovered two new chemical elements: polonium and radium. She went on to win two Nobel Prizes—one in physics and one in chemistry—making her the only person ever to win Nobel prizes in multiple sciences. Her work helped lay the foundations for our modern understanding of radioactivity and its role in cancer treatment. 

Sally Ride (1951-2012) 

An American astronaut and physicist. In 1983, she became the first American woman in space as a member of NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-7. Ride went on to fly two more missions aboard Challenger before leaving NASA in 1987 to focus on her work as a physics professor at Stanford University. Throughout her life, Ride advocated for increased participation of women and girls in STEM fields. 

Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)

Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, she was an Austrian-American actress and inventor. She is credited with coining the term “electronic traffic jam” and helped develop a spread spectrum technology which became essential for modern wireless communication such as Bluetooth and WiFi. 

Dr. Mae C Jemison (born 1956)

An American physician and former NASA astronaut who made history when she became the first black woman to travel into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-47 on September 12, 1992. She currently serves as President of the 100 Year Starship organization whose goal is to ensure that humanity will be capable of interstellar space travel within 100 years by 2112.

Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) 

Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese physicist who made important contributions to the development of nuclear weapons during World War II. After the war, she turned her attention to experimental physics and helped disprove the law of parity conservation—a fundamental principle of physics that had been believed to be true up until that point. 

Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) 

Dorothy Hodgkin was a British chemist who pioneered the field of protein crystallography—a technique used to determine the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules. Her work led to the discovery of the structure of insulin, vitamin B12, and other important biomolecules. For her discoveries, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. 

Jane Goodall (born 1934) 

Jane Goodall is a British primatologist who is best known for her pioneering work on chimpanzee behavior in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park. Her work has shown that chimpanzees are much more similar to humans than was previously believed and has shed new light on our own evolutionary history. 

Mary Leakey (1913-1996) 

Mary Leakey was a British archaeologist who made important discoveries about human evolution at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. She and her husband Louis Leakey discovered fossilized remains of some of our earliest ancestors, which helped to fill in some critical gaps in our understanding of human evolution. 

Grace Hopper (1906-1992)

American computer scientist who helped develop COBOL—one of the first high-level programming languages. Hopper also coined the term “debugging” after she found a moth trapped in one of her computers’ relays! In addition to her work with programming languages, Hopper also served as a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy Reserve—the oldest reserve officer on active duty at the time of her retirement. 

Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) 

An American mathematician who calculated trajectories for NASA’s early Space Missions, including Alan Shepard’s Mercury mission and John Glenn’s Friendship 7 orbit around Earth. Her work was critical to NASA’s success in putting humans into space; without her calculations, it is likely that these early missions would have ended in disaster. Katherine Johnson also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor in the United States—from President Barack Obama in 2015. 

Margaret Hamilton (born 1936)

An American software engineer who played a key role in developing both software for NASA’s Apollo Moon landing missions and onboard flight software for the Space Shuttle program. In 2016, Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her significant contributions to America’s space program. She is currently working on developing safe autonomous systems that could one day help humans colonize Mars. 

From conducting groundbreaking research to becoming the first person to program a computer, these fems in STEM show that there is no limit to what women can achieve. These fems have all made major contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, throughout history, and their groundbreaking work has had a lasting impact on the world as we know it. So, take a moment to celebrate their accomplishments—and be inspired to achieve great things yourself!