The Lost Women of Science Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with two overarching and interrelated missions: to tell the story of female scientists who made groundbreaking achievements in their fields—yet remain largely unknown to the general public—and to inspire girls and young women to embark on careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
The Devil in the Details, Chapter One: The Doctor Who Said No to Thalidomide
Starting with her rejection of an FDA application for thalidomide in 1960, physician and pharmacist Frances Oldham Kelsey took a stand against the now infamous drug
In Early Science Journalism, These Women Were Writing for Their Lives
Starting in the 1920s female writers pioneered the field of science writing for the mass market, making it their mission to help ordinary people understand everything from astronomy to venereal disease
This Researcher Helped Create a Machine to Pursue the ‘Quest for Everything’
Helen Edwards was a particle physicist who led the design and construction of the Tevatron, a machine built to probe deeper into the atom than anyone had gone before.
This Researcher Is on a Crusade to Correct Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalance
Physicist Jess Wade explains the importance of recognizing female scientists on Wikipedia. She’s created more than 2,000 Wikipedia articles to do just that
Nancy Hopkins and Her Tape Measure Took on M.I.T. for Discrimination
Nancy Hopkins used a commitment to justice and a tape measure to take M.I.T. to task for discrimination. The impacts of her fight are still being felt today.
The Remarkable Life of Chemistry Professor and Crime Buster Mary Louisa Willard
This chemistry professor helped police around the world solve arsons and homicides
Meet the Unknown Female Botanists Who Established the Field of Ecological Restoration
Historian and ecologist Laura J. Martin rediscovers the female scientists who established ecological restoration in her book Wild by Design
The Poetic Lives of Lost Women of Math and Science
When poet Jessy Randall saw that so many female scientists weren’t getting their due, she got mad. And then she decided to write poems for as many as she could
Elizabeth Bates and the Search for the Roots of Human Language
In the 1970s a young psychologist challenged a popular theory of how we acquire language, launching a fierce debate that continues to this day
The Theoretical Physicist Who Worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
Melba Phillips co-authored a paper with J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1935 that proved important in the development of nuclear physics. Later she became an outspoken critic of nuclear weapons
The Victorian Woman Who Chased Eclipses
Annie Maunder was an astronomer who expanded our understanding of the sun at the turn of the 20th century. Her passion was photographing eclipses.
The Forgotten Sisters Who Transformed Early American Science
The Morris sisters made significant contributions to botany and entomology, but their stories were erased from the history of early American science, both accidentally and by design.
The Cognitive Neuroscientist Who Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Language
Ursula Bellugi was fixated on how we learn language. Her groundbreaking research on sign language demonstrated the connection between language skills and biology
The Amazing Aerial Adventures of Lilian Bland, the ‘Flying Feminist’
In 1910 an Anglo-Irish woman named Lilian Bland built a plane with little to no encouragement from her family or aviation enthusiasts. Shortly after the plane took off, she quit flying and moved on to her next challenge
The Untold Story of the Black Nurses Who Helped Develop a Cure for Tuberculosis
Black nurses worked through unsanitary conditions and racial prejudice to help patients through the debilitating disease TB before a cure was found—with their help
The Industrial Designer behind the N95 Mask
Sara Little Turnbull used materials science to invent and design products for the modern world
The Forgotten Star of Radio Astronomy
Ruby Payne-Scott and her colleagues unlocked a new way of seeing the universe, but to keep her job, Ruby had to keep a big secret.
Forgotten Electrical Engineer's Work Paved the Way for Radar Technology
Sallie Pero Mead made major discoveries about how electromagnetic waves propagate that allowed objects to be detected at a distance
This Doctor Helped Spare Women from Radical Mastectomy
Canadian radiation oncologist Vera Peters pioneered the use of lumpectomies and postoperative radiation to treat breast cancer patients.
Adventures of a Bone Hunter
Annie Montague Alexander went on paleontology expeditions most women could only dream of in the early 1900s
This Filipina Physicist Helped Develop a Top Secret Weapon
Emma Unson Rotor worked on the proximity fuze, a groundbreaking piece of World War II weapons technology that the U.S. War Department called “second only to the atomic bomb.”
The Devastating Logic of Christine Ladd-Franklin
This early feminist fought for the credit she deserved for her deductive reasoning system and her educational qualifications
This Biophysicist 'Sun Queen' Harnessed Solar Power
Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventorMária Telkes illuminated the field of solar energy. She invented a solar oven, a solar desalination kit and, in the late 1940s, designed one of the first solar-heated houses
The Woman Who Demonstrated the Greenhouse Effect
Eunice Newton Foote showed that carbon dioxide traps the heat of the sun in 1856, beating the so-called father of the greenhouse effect by at least three years. Why was she forgotten?