STEM Girls
When we began researching girls and women for this exhibition, we were happily surprised at the sheer number of amazing gals who’ve been involved in STEM fields throughout history. Because there are so many of them, we’ve been unable to include them all in the exhibition itself, but through our blog and Tumblr we’ve been able to feature more STEM Girls. Below we’ve collected the girls and women featured on our blog for Women’s History Month 2015.
STEM Girls: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a Northern Irish astrophysicist who has been credited with one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the 20th century. She had a tough time at college, being the only woman in a class of 49 men. She said in an interview in the Belfast...
The Women Codebreakers of Bletchley Park
For years, the efforts of thousands of codebreakers working in small huts in the grounds of a large mansion somewhere in Buckinghamshire was kept as one of the biggest secrets of the Second World War. The most famous figure is the great Alan Turing. Without him, the...
Beatrix Potter: artist, author, naturalist, farmer and conservationist
As we draw to the end of another year, it is hard not to reflect on the past twelve months. It has certainly been a year of landmark anniversaries. We have marked the 400 years since the death of Shakespeare, 350 years since the Great Fire of London, and remembered...
STEM Girls: Peggy Whitson
This year Peggy Whitson made history in three different ways. First she became the oldest woman to fly into space. Second, she became the first woman to command the International Space Center twice. And third, she broke the record for the amount of time spent in space...
The ENIAC Girls who revolutionised computer programming
The women codebreakers of Bletchley Park are not the only women to have been largely forgotten in our history. Towards the end of the Second World War, just across the ocean, the ENIAC programme was launched. The aim was to build a computer that could perform a set of...
STEM Girls: South African School Girls
May 2017 will see South Africa will launch the first private satellite into space from Africa. The fact that a group of school girls are responsible is even more historic. Cape Peninsula University of Technology are responsible for this historic feat. They are trying...
STEM Girls: Margaret Guo
In October, Margaret Guo was named the NCAA Woman of the Year. The award was in recognition of her accomplishments not only in the swimming pool but for her academic work as well. She is the first MIT student to win this award. Margaret graduated with dual degrees in...
STEM Girls: Stephanie Wilson
A few weeks ago we featured the first African-American woman in space, Mae Jemison. It is often the case that the person who is first to achieve something is the person who gets all the plaudits and the second person becomes a footnote in history. In the case of the...
STEM Girls: Debyani Chakravarty
Debyani grew up in a family in which education was incredibly important. Her goal initially was to become a doctor but some wise words from her grandmother gave her pause for thought. Her grandmother said to her that "if you're going to do research, do it so that you...
STEM Girls: Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison has been making history throughout her career. She was not only the first African-American woman to be an astronaut but she was also the first African-American woman to be sent into space. Mae's interest in science began at an early age and it continued...
STEM Girls: Dr. Beth A. Brown
Beth grew up in Virginia, and from a young age had an interest in science, especially in astronomy. She was her class valedictorian when she graduated in 1987 from high school and she went on to study astrophysics at Howard University in Washington DC. She earned her...
STEM Girls: Hadiyah-Nicole Green
There are less than 100 black female physicists currently working in the United States. According to data gathered from the United States National Science Foundation from 1973 to 2012, only 66 black women have earned a PhD in physics. Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green is one...
STEM Girls: Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a woman living her dream. As a child she saved her money to buy a telescope. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great quality telescope, but in an attempt to improve it she began attending night school to learn the skills herself. She was the youngest...
STEM Girl Spotlight: Deborah Cornelison
Last month I attended the Global MindED Conference in Denver, Colorado and was able to meet many wonderful people working toward improving global education. Conference attendees included teachers, administrators, policy makers, and technology and industry...
STEM Girl Spotlight: Perla Bustillos
Last month I attended the Global MindED Conference in Denver, Colorado and was able to meet many wonderful people working toward improving global education. Conference attendees included teachers, administrators, policy makers, and technology and industry...
STEM Girls: Mildred Dresselhaus
Mildred Dresselhaus was born in Brooklyn on November 11, 1930. The daughter of Eastern European immigrants, the only career option that was seriously presented to her through the New York school system was that of school teacher. She did ultimately end up in...
STEM Girl Spotlight: Islin Munisteri, Petroleum Reservoir Engineer
Islin contacted us after she learned about Girl Museum when her friend Kaitlyn Reed Bunker was featured on our blog. I was so excited to hear from another STEM Girl and I enjoyed getting to know Islin a little bit better through emails. I was especially excited...
STEM Girls: Dorothy Hodgkin
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born in Cairo in 1910. Her father was working in the Egyptian Education Service, but soon moved to the Sudan to become the Director of Education and Antiquities. Her mother was involved in her father's work, but became an authority in her...
STEM Girls: Mary Leakey
Mary Douglas Nicol was born in February of 1913. Her father was a landscape artist, which led Mary to spend much of her childhood in Europe where he painted- notably in the Dordogne and Les Eyzies, regions rich in prehistoric art and archaeological sites. Mary's...
STEM Girls: Chien Shiung Wu
Chien Shiung Wu was born in 1912 in Liu Ho, China. She began her education at her parents' school, but then was sent to boarding school in Suzhou in 1922. She graduated at the top of her class in 1930 and went on to study at the National Central University of Nanking...