Recognizing Women’s Contributions to Science
"Rocketing into space aboard the space shuttle Challenger as the first American woman to fly in space is one of my favorite moments."
Media Credit: NASA
This has been an important year for recognizing women in science—the Nobel committee recently announced the third woman in history to win the Nobel prize in physics and the fifth woman to win the Nobel prize in chemistry.
Donna Strickland, of the University of Waterloo in Canada, was awarded the 2018 Nobel prize in physics for her work on laser technology, marking the first time a woman has been awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 55 years. Strickland shares the prize with Arthur Ashkin, of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, and Gérard Mourou, of École Polytechnique in France and the University of Michigan.
Frances H. Arnold, of the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the 2018 Nobel prize in chemistry for her work in developing the directed evolution of enzymes. Arnold shares the prize with George P. Smith, retired from the University of Missouri in Columbia, and Gregory P. Winter, of Cambridge University.
Learn about some of the women doing groundbreaking research on the International Space Station U.S. National Lab in the ISS360 article, “Exciting Time for Women in Science.”
Women to Win Nobel Prize in Physics
- 1903: Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel prize in physics for her research on radioactivity.
- 1963: Maria Goeppert-Mayer won the Nobel prize in physics for her work on the structure of atomic nuclei.
- 2018: Donna Strickland won the Nobel prize in physics for her work on laser technology.
Women to Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1911: Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel prize in chemistry for her discovery of radium and polonium.
- 1935: Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie Curie, won the Nobel prize in chemistry for her work on the synthesis of new radioactive elements.
- 1964: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin won the Nobel prize in chemistry for her use of X-ray techniques to determine the structure of important biochemical substances.
- 2009: Ada E. Yonath won the Nobel prize in chemistry for her research on the structure and function of the ribosome.
- 2018: Frances H. Arnold, won the Nobel prize in chemistry for her work in developing the directed evolution of enzymes.