This blog series is about getting to know a variety of inspirational scientists and engineers. We have all heard about the big ones, Einstein, Galileo, Newton, Archimedes, da Vinci, Hawkings. Or maybe even some of these, Plank, Rutherford, Marconi, Maxwell, Hertz, Ampere and the Curies. But have you heard of Mosely (not the TV doctor), Lovelace, Hopper, Pauli, Zwicky, Burnell and Higgs? There are so many exciting inspirational people that I want to share my favourites with you.
Series 1
In the first series, I am going to cover the following people
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell – The Pulsar Detective. Her desert island discs interview is available
Admiral Grace Hopper – The Bug Killer
Henry Gwyn Jeffreys ‘Harry’ Moseley – X-rays and Atoms
Irene Joliot-Curie – The other Curie
J.J. Thomson & George Thomson – Electrons as a particle and a wave
Future series
Human computers
The Havard Computers
The Bletchleyettes
The West Computers
THe Earth & the Universe
Inge Lehmann
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Wang Zhenyi
Annie Scott Dill Maunder
Ruby Payne-Scott
Biology & Natural Sciences
Mary Annning
Maria Sibylla Merian
Dian Fossey
Bertha Lutz
Jane Colden
Esther Lederberg
Ynes Mexia
Wangari Maathai
Medicine & Psychology
Aspasia
Fe del Mundo
Jane Cooke Wright
Ruby Hirose
Kamala Sohonie
Margaret Sanger
Gertrude B Elion
Helen Rodriguez-Trias
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Leta Hollingworth
Elements & Genetics
Nettie Stevens
Ida Noddack
Rosalind Franklin
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Physics & Chemistry
Chien-Shiung Wu
Lise Meitner – Co-discoverer of nuclear fission
Leona Woods Marshall Libby
Tapputi
Laura Bassi
Dorothy Hodgkin
Niels Bohr – Devised quantum atomic model
Mathematics
Hypatia of Alexandria
Emilie du Chatelet
Emmy Noether
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sophie Germain
Technology & Inventions
Maria the Jewess
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner
Hertha Ayrton
Rose Dieng-Kuntz
Ada Lovelace
References for this list
Forgotten Women – The Scientists by Zing Tsjeng
Physics – An Illustrated History of the Foundations of Science by Tom Jackson
Breakfast with Einstein – The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects by Chad Orzel
This post is also on steamfunk.com.au
