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.”

Chien-Shiung Wu

In her extraordinary career, Chien-Shiung Wu disproved a "law" of nature (conservation of parity), worked on the Manhattan Project, became the first female instructor in Princeton's physics department, and earned a reputation as the leading experimental physicist of her time....

Rosalind Franklin

English chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin used X-ray diffraction to reveal complex minerals and living tissues' inner structures, including — famously — DNA. Had she not died in 1958 at 37, it is widely believed she would have shared the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with colleague Aaron Klug....

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

As a Ph.D. student, Jocelyn Bell Burnell analyzed radio telescope data when she noticed radio pulses from one point in the sky. She had discovered pulsars: rotating neutron stars that emit beams of radiation, like cosmic lighthouses. The work earned her graduate supervisor a Nobel and launched an outstanding career....

Vera Rubin

Vera Rubin saw something unusual in galaxies: outer stars orbit just as quickly as those in the center. She surmised that each galaxy must contain more mass than meets the eye. It was the first observational evidence of dark matter, which today is one of the most studied cosmology topics....

Marjorie Lee Browne

Marjorie Lee Browne was a mathematics educator. She was one of the first African-American women to receive a Ph.D in mathematics....

Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine....

Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville was a Scottish science writer and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and was nominated to be jointly the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same time as Caroline Herschel....

Mary Cartwright

Dame Mary Lucy Cartwright, DBE, FRS, FRSE was a British mathematician. She was one of the pioneers of what would later become known as chaos theory. Along with J. E. Littlewood, Cartwright saw many solutions to a problem which would later be seen as an example of the butterfly effect....

Julia Bowman Robinson

Julia Hall Bowman Robinson was an American mathematician noted for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory—most notably in decision problems. Her work on Hilbert's 10th problem played a crucial role in its ultimate resolution. Robinson was a 1983 MacArthur Fellow....

Émilie du Châtelet

Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet was a French natural philosopher and mathematician during the early 1730s until her untimely death due to childbirth complications in 1749. ...