VARconnection

Marie Curie

Remembered as a leading figure in science and a role model for women, Marie Curie was the first women to receive a Nobel Prizes, and the first person ever to win the award twice, both in Physics and Chemistry. Her efforts with her husband Pierre led to the discovery of polonium and radium, and she championed the development of X-rays.

Read more about Marie Curie here: https://www.biography.com/scientists/marie-curie

Edith Clarke

Edith Clarke was the first woman to earn a master’s in electrical engineering from MIT, the first women to be professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the United States, and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the country. In 1921, Clarke filed for a patent on her graphical calculator, and it was granted in 1925.

Read more about Edith Clarke here: https://www.invent.org/blog/inventors/edith-clarke-calculator#:~:text=Making%20Monumental%20Calculations&text=Clarke%20filed%20for%20a%20patent,it%20was%20granted%20in%201925.

Ellen Ochoa

Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut, and former director of the Johnson Space Center. In 1993, Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Ochoa has flown four times, logging nearly 1,000 hours in orbit. She is a co-inventor on three patents in optics and author of several technical papers.

Read more about Ellen Ochoa here: https://wams.nyhistory.org/end-of-the-twentieth-century/the-information-age/ellen-ochoa/

Maria Klawe

Maria Klawe is a nationally renowned computer scientist, mathematician, and former president of Harvey Mudd College. Klawe is now the president of Math for America. She is known for her advocacy for women in STEM fields, successfully increasing women in computer science, engineering, and physics during her time at the university.

Read more about Klawe here: https://www.mathforamerica.org/media-insights/blog/math-america-names-maria-klawe-next-president

Who is your female role model in STEM? Let us now in the comments!