30 Remarkable Women in Science and Math

Mathematics, Science, Women
August 18, 2022

Many talented and smart women have limited opportunities to use their intelligence and talents, and their gender becomes an obstacle when they want to show their potential. Thankfully, we had so many great female scientists and mathematicians that bigoted hearts and minds couldn’t stop them from making important discoveries.

You might not know their names or faces, but those pioneering women in science and math changed how we live and think about the world. They have made major contributions to the sciences for centuries, and you’ll see evidence of their work everywhere, from our clothing to hospital X-rays.

Who are the greatest women in science and math ever lived?

Of course, it would be impossible to list them all. Still, these the most influential 30 women in science and math deserve recognition for their enduring contributions to the fields of math, science, technology, and engineering.

You should also check our “15+ Remarkable Women in STEM Who Changed the World” directory.

By the way, Rachel Ignotofsky has a great book called “Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World.”

Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Despite spending most of her career working in unpaid positions, Maria Goeppert-Mayer made huge contributions to theoretical and chemical physics. Her most significant breakthrough was a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear shells, for which she earned a Nobel....

Ursula Franklin

After earning a Ph.D. in experimental physics in Berlin, Ursula Franklin moved to Canada, eventually becoming the first female professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Engineering. A tireless pacifist, feminist, and human rights advocate, her work on nuclear blast fallout led to the end of atmospheric weapons testing....

Lene Hau

In 1999, Lene Hau slowed a beam of light down to the pace of a fast bicycle ride. Then, in 2001, the Danish physicist stopped light completely. The now-famous work holds important implications for quantum computing and quantum cryptography....

Sandra Faber

As a child, Sandra Faber spent countless evenings lying in her backyard, gazing at the stars. Decades later, when the Hubble Telescope’s first photos came back blurry, she led the team that diagnosed and solved the problem, enabling the telescope to capture some of the most stunning images of space ever seen....

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin studied at Cambridge but was denied a degree because it didn't grant them to women until 1948. She pursued a Ph.D. in the United States, and in her thesis showed the sun is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. It has been called "the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy....

Fabiola Gianotti

Fabiola Gianotti first studied arts and philosophy because she loved asking big questions. Then physics won her heart because it provides big answers. Now, she’s a leading researcher at the biggest particle physics laboratory on Earth....

Emmy Noether

Amalie “Emmy” Noether was a pioneer of abstract algebra. She was also a trailblazer who refused to accept that women should not join the pursuit of knowledge. When Germany’s Nazi government hounded her out of academia, she taught in secret. Today, Noether’s theorem underpins much of modern physics....

Sophie Germain

In Napoleonic France, a challenge was issued to explain why the sand on small glass plates settled into patterns when the glass was vibrated. The only entrant was Sophie Germain. It took her six years, but she eventually won with a pioneering paper on elasticity. Despite her work, she was never accepted by the male establishment of the time....

Grace Hopper

A US Navy rear admiral and computer science pioneer, Grace Hopper was among the programmers of a computer used near World War II. She coined the term "debugging" after removing an actual moth from the circuitry of a malfunctioning Harvard Mark II computer in 1947....

Hypatia

Hypatia was one of the first women to study mathematics and astronomy. She rose to become the Platonist school head in Alexandria, but her pioneering life ended in tragedy: zealots murdered her during a period of religious strife. Some consider her death at the end of classical scholarship....