From string theory to clothes wringers: A historical map of women shaping science and technology Compiled by Sonia Randhawa

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Enheduanna Aglaonike Hypatia (c. 2285-2250 BCE) (2nd century BCE) (370-415 AD) An astronomer, one of the Astronomer who Mathematician and natural first written poets, and could predict philosopher. Developed High Priestess of the Moon eclipses. scientific instruments Goddess, writing about 300 including a hydrometer that years after the invention of measured “specific gravity” cuneiform letters. of liquids – used today to check a car battery’s charge by testing the acid.

Fatima de Madrid (10th-11th century AD) Corrected Arabic astronomical tables, collaborated with her father in mathematical investigations.

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Maria Gaetana Agnesi Ada Lovelace Hertha Marks Ayrton Rosza Peter (1718-1799) (1842-1843) (1854-1923) (1905-1977) Discovered a solution for an Wrote the first computer Physicist who worked on One of the founders of algebraic problem, still used programme and electric arcs and sand ripples. computational theory, who today, plotted on a curve originated the concept suffered persecution under called “the witch of Agnesi”. of using binary numbers. Beulah Louise Henry the Fascists in Hungary Imagined a greater (1887-1973) and worked to secure Maria Angela Ardinghelli potential for one of the Dubbed “Lady Edison” by the opportunities for girls to (1728-1835) earliest computer models media. First patent at age 25 study mathematics in Soviet than simply crunching Hungary. Renowned physicist and for an ice cream freezer with a numbers. vacuum seal. Created hundreds mathematician. Grace Hopper of items including a hair curler, (1906-1992) typewriter attachments, and Wang Zhenyi In 1944, she was one of the (1768-1797) movable dolls that could kick, blink, eat and even talk. first programmers for the Astronomer who modelled Harvard Mark I Calculator, the how lunar eclipses were Ellen Eglin earliest large-scale automatic caused. A Venusian crater is (1880s) digital computer in the USA. named after her. She also developed the first Invented a highly successful compiler for a computer clothes wringer but did not programming language. patent it. Sold it for a small amount because she believed Paris Pismis that white women would not (1911-1999) use the wringer if they knew it One of the first astronomers was created by a black woman. to study young clusters using Elizaveta Ivanova photometric photometry. Karamihailova She was also the first woman (1897-1968) to graduate in science from Istanbul University. Pioneered nuclear physics in Bulgaria. She also initiated experimental nuclear physics Hedy Lamarr in the country. (1913-2000) Sexy movie star of the 1930s and 1940s. Co-inventor of a remote-controlled, jam-proof for the US military that was patented during WW II.

Margaret Burbridge (1919- ) One of the first to publish that all the elements, except the very lightest, are born in stars.

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Olive Ann Beech Mary Allen Wilkes Bozena Czerny Kalpana Chawla (1920-1986) (1937- ) (1952- ) (1962-2003) Co-founded Beech Aircraft, In 1965, she became Studies accreting black holes Astronaut who perished in which she ran until her death the first person to to look at the behaviour of the Space Shuttle Columbia when it was an international use a computer in a and test general relativity in disaster in February 2003. aerospace corporation. private home, and was a strong gravitational field. the first developer of Itziar Aretxaga Xide Xie an operating system Dora Nkem Akunyili (1965- ) (1921-2000) (LAP) for the first (1954- ) Mexican astrophysicist with Banished during the Cultural minicomputer (LINC) A Nigerian pharmacist who over 100 publications. Revolution, she was key to has survived violence and the development of solid Mary Spaeth assassination attempts for Katherine Adebola Okikiolu state physics in China. (1940- ) her war against deadly fake (1965- ) Developed several drugs. Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Mathematician of Nigerian inventions around laser Fran Bilas, Kay McNulty, Marlyn origin who works on technology, including Wescoff and Ruth Lichterman Rose Dieng-Kuntz differential geometry and the integral part of laser (1956-2008) operator theory. Original programmers in 1946 devices used to scan of the ENIAC, the first general- A Senegalese scientist and barcodes at cash registers. purpose electronic computer. one of the first scholars to Received formal recognition understand the importance Neta Assaf Bachall of their contribution 50 years of the Web and to map how (1942- ) after the development of it would evolve, specialising ENIAC through the Hall of Specialises in the study in and Fame award from Women in of the universe, helped to knowledge management. Technology International. calculate the weight of the universe. Erna Schneider Hoover (1926- ) Created the first computerised switching machine for Bell Laboratories.

Grace Alele Williams (1932- ) The first Nigerian woman to earn a doctorate, awarded in mathematics, she has been at the forefront of mathematical education in Africa – and was inspired by the Sputnik programme!

Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann (1937-2005) Apart from working in SETI, this Filipino-American microbiologist has a mountain in Antarctica named after her, for her work exploring the terraforming of Mars.

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Susan Kare Czarina Saloma Created the icons and many Conducts research into the of the interface elements for sociology of technology, the original Apple Macintosh with a focus on gender, in the 1980s. looking primarily at her home country of the Philippines Shafi Goldwasser and neighbouring Southeast Two-time recipient of Asian states. the Gödel Prize for research on complexity Sau Lan Wu theory, cryptography and A particle physicist who was computational number part of the team who recently theory, and the invention of (appear to have) found the zero-knowledge proofs. Higgs Boson.

Sally Floyd Doria Daou Extensive research and One of the founders of the development on the Spritzer Space Telescope Transmission Control Protocol Research programme for (often referred to as TCP/IP), teachers and students one of the core protocols of and creator of the “Ask an the Protocol Suite that Astronomer” video series. enables and controls delivery of messages and data between Fernanda Viégas one computer and another. Brazilian communications expert who has done exciting work democratising important internet communication tools for visualisation.

Irene Cruz-Gonzalez Espinosa A Mexican astronomer, her “passion is in the delicate scientific observational work to understand galaxies, their environment and nuclear activity and star formation processes.”

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