A History of Trailblazing Women in STEM

Widely recognized as the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace collaborated with Charles Babbage, designer of the first mechanical computer. Lovelace authored a detailed set of instructions for a proposed computing machine that would have been capable of performing complex mathematical calculations.

Her work on the so-called "Analytical Engine," as it was called, included the development of an algorithm representing essentially the first computer program. While her contributions to the field of computer science were largely overlooked during her lifetime, she is now recognized as a pioneer of modern computing.

The Polish-born physicist and chemist made groundbreaking contributions to the fields of radioactivity and nuclear physics. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win Nobel Prizes in different fields of science (physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911). Her pioneering work included the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium, and the development of techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes.

Katherine Johnson was a mathematician and physicist who played a key role in the early years of NASA's space program as part of the team calculating the trajectories for the first human spaceflight by Alan Shepard in 1961. Johnson's precise calculations and expertise in celestial navigation were critical to the success of these missions, and she continued to work on spaceflight projects throughout her career at NASA.

Despite facing discrimination and segregation as a Black woman in a male-dominated field, Johnson's contributions to the space program helped pave the way for future generations of women and people of color in science and technology.

Annie Easley was one of the first African-American women to work as a computer scientist at NASA, and she made important contributions to the development of software for rocket propulsion systems and energy conversion systems.

She was also involved in research on alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power, and she worked to improve access to science and technology education for underprivileged children. Easley's work helped pave the way for future generations of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.

Often referred to as the "Mother of COBOL," or Common Business Oriented Language, Grace Hopper was a computer scientist and naval officer. She was instrumental in authoring the COBOL programming language designed for business applications, which became one of the most widely used programming languages in the world.

She also played a key role in the development of the first computers, including the Harvard Mark I and UNIVAC I, and is credited with coining the term "debugging" after removing a moth from a computer.

The Austrian born actress, better known for her silver screen allure, also made important contributions to the field of wireless communication, working with composer George Antheil to develop a "frequency hopping" system during World War II that could be used to prevent enemy interception of radio-controlled torpedoes.

Although the pioneering system was not immediately implemented during the war, it was later used as the basis for modern technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS.

As a computer scientist, Adele Goldberg worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s, where she was one of the developers of the Smalltalk-80 programming language and the Smalltalk-80 user interface. These innovations became influential in the development of object-oriented programming and graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which have become standard features in modern computing.

Goldberg's achievements also include lifelong efforts to promote educational opportunities and career advancement for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields . She is also a founder of the Institute for Research on Learning to help improve education through the use of technology.

Elizabeth Feinler played a key role in the development of the early internet as director of the Network Information Center (NIC) at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), responsible for managing the early internet domain name system (DNS) and assigning unique network addresses to computers on the internet.

Her work on the early internet helped establish many of the fundamental technologies and standards that are still used today, leading to her induction into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012.

Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian-born biochemist, has been instrumental in developing modifications to mRNA molecules that would make them more stable and less likely to trigger an immune response, which paved the way for the use of mRNA as a tool for creating vaccines and other therapies.

Throughout her career, Karikó has played a pivotal role in the development of mRNA-based vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines, and in 2021 she was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research for her groundbreaking work on mRNA-based therapeutics.

Dr. Katie Bouman led the development of an algorithm used to process data collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of telescopes around the world used to capture the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019.

Her algorithm helped stitch together the data from the various telescopes and create an image that was the result of years of planning and collaboration, and she has since continued her work in the field of computer vision and image processing. In 2021, Bouman was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Progress Medal and Honorary Fellowship.

Dr. Katie Bouman led the development of an algorithm used to process data collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of telescopes around the world used to capture the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019.

Her algorithm helped stitch together the data from the various telescopes and create an image that was the result of years of planning and collaboration, and she has since continued her work in the field of computer vision and image processing. In 2021, Bouman was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Progress Medal and Honorary Fellowship.