Mary Taylor Slow

Mary Taylor Slow was a British mathematician and physicist who worked on the theory of radio waves and the application of differential equations to physics.

Continue reading

Gladys Mackenzie

Gladys Mackenzie graduated from the University of Edinburgh and became an assistant in the Natural Philosophy department. She moved to Newnham College Cambridge and late to Bristol University and Queen Elizabeth College London. She published papers on X-ray spectroscopy.

Continue reading

Sophie Germain

Sophie Germain made a major contributions to number theory (in particular, the theory of primes), acoustics and elasticity.

Continue reading

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat is a French mathematician and physicist who made important contributions to the general theory of relativity. She was the first woman to be elected to the French Academy of Sciences.

Continue reading

Lene Hau

Lene Hau is a Danish physicist and mathematician. She has led a team at Harvard University who have slowed light and in 2001 succeeded in stopping a beam of light. This has important applications to quantum computing.

Continue reading

Hertha Ayrton

Hertha Ayrton was an engineer and mathematician. She was awarded the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal, and is well known as a suffragette.

Continue reading

Laura Bassi

Laura Bassi was an Italian physicist and one of the earliest women to gain a position in an Italian university.

Continue reading

Leona Woods Marshall Libby

It is well known that the United States produced the first nuclear bomb in 1945. However, less well known are the women who contributed their talents to make this event a reality. Physicist Leona Woods Marshall Libby was one of the women who helped to create the atomic weapon. She worked on the team that constructed the first nuclear chain reaction leading to the development of the bomb.

Continue reading