Over the course of history, many women have made meaningful and inspiring contributions to the field of science. Here are 6 women throughout history who made significant contributions to chemistry.
- Rachel Holloway Lloyd
Born in 1839, Rachel Holloway Lloyd grew up in a time where female scientists were rare. She was the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry and the second woman to join the American Chemical Society. Three of her papers were published in the American Chemical Journal, making her the first woman to publish a paper in that journal.
Lloyd is most known for her research on beets. She analyzed the chemistry of sugar beets and how they reacted with Nebraskan soil to see if they could grow in northern climates. Through her research, the beet industry in Nebraska became very successful and still is to this day. Lloyd also taught chemistry at the University of Nebraska until she retired in 1894. She was a great role model for future women in chemistry.
- Mildred Cohn
Mildred Cohn was an intelligent biophysicist and chemist who studied chemistry and its connection to life sciences. She started college at the age of 15 and graduated 3 years later. She also received her master’s degree and Ph.D. at Columbia University.
As a Jewish woman, Cohn fought against gender and religious discrimination. After graduating, many jobs she applied for did not even offer her an interview. She first got a job at George Washington University to research how chemical reactions occur in animals. In 1946, she joined a biochemistry laboratory in Washington University, Missouri, where she studied enzymes.
In 1948, she joined the University of Pennsylvania’s biophysics department. She researched adenosine triphosphate, commonly abbreviated as ATP, a chemical compound that transports energy in our cells. Her methods of studying enzymes and other molecules became adopted by many other scientists to study metabolic processes.
Cohn was the first woman to join the board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, where she was an editor for 10 years. She was also the first woman president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She retired in 1982, the same year she received the National Medal of Science, an honor bestowed from the president for people who make great contributions to science and technology.
- Stephanie Kwolek
Stephanie Kwolek is most known for her discovery of Kevlar, an extraordinarily strong and light material. She worked as a chemist in a company called DuPont. Tasked by DuPont, she started searching for a synthetic material that could withstand extreme conditions. In 1965 she discovered that with certain conditions, a large number of molecules could form fibers with very high strength and stiffness, five times stronger than steel. Kwolek patented the material in 1966 and DuPont named it Kevlar.
The discovery of Kevlar opened many possibilities. It can be used as lightweight body armor and has saved the lives of many policemen and soldiers. It can also be used to suspend bridges, make protective clothing for athletes, and much more.
- Mary Lowe Good
Mary Lowe Good was planning to become an economics teacher, but one fateful day, she learned about Marie Curie in her required chemistry class. Captivated and inspired, she switched her major to chemistry. She went on to contribute greatly to the field.
In 1967, Good pioneered an experimental technique called Mössbauer spectroscopy, which uses gamma rays to figure out the molecular structure of complicated compounds containing metal ions.
Good is best known for her public service. She was the president of the American Chemical Society. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 1993 she became the undersecretary for technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and she advised many other presidents on science as well. She was also elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001. She received many awards for her contributions and outstanding service to the nation.
- Tu Youyou
Tu Youyou is a Chinese chemist who was born and raised in Ningbo, China. After contracting tuberculosis at 16, she decided she was going to study medicine. In 1969, she was appointed the head of a Chinese project to find a cure for malaria. She traveled to areas in southern China where she saw just how devastating the disease was.
Youyou used past Chinese medical texts from the Zhou, Qing, and Han Dynasties to search for a cure. In 1971, she and her team discovered a compound called artemisinin, and when they tested it on themselves and test patients, all of them recovered! They had found the cure, saving the lives of millions of people who were dying from the disease.
Youyou received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2015, becoming the first mainland Chinese scientist to have received a Nobel Prize in a scientific category.
- Jennifer Doudna
Jennifer Doudna is an American biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. With her partner Emmanuelle Charpentier, she discovered the revolutionary tool CRISPR. CRISPR has the ability to edit genes by finding DNA inside a cell and altering the DNA sequence. It is a groundbreaking discovery that allows for a simple and cheap way to edit genes and unlocks many possibilities.
CRISPR has been used for scientific research and altering the genes of plants and animals for food. It also has the potential to be used in medicine, allowing us to prevent and treat previously incurable diseases. But there is also controversy surrounding this powerful tool. Is it ethical to use CRISPR on human genes, possibly causing mutations and harm for future generations?
Nonetheless, the creation of CRISPR was a huge scientific breakthrough, and Doudna and Charpentier received the 2020 Nobel Prize, becoming the first all-female team to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
By Vivien Chen
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