Born: 14 February 1862, Italy
Died: 21 November 1935
Country most active: Germany
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Chemist Agnes Pockels would have studied the subject if she were given the chance, but women were not admitted to universities in 1870s Germany. Her work laid the foundation on which Irving Langmuir won his 1932 Nobel in Chemistry, but she was never paid or affiliated with an academic institution, relegating her to the role of citizen scientist. She later recalled, “I had a passionate interest in natural science, especially physics, and would have liked to study.” …
Irving Langmuir received the 1932 Nobel in Chemistry for his work in surface chemistry, primarily the development of single-molecule surface layers that have been used to create coatings, membranes, sensors, and electronic devices. Yet although these are called Langmuir-Blodgett films, his colleague Katharine Burr Blodgett was excluded from the Nobel. She worked closely with Langmuir to develop the films and the apparatus that makes them, called the Langmuir–Blodgett trough. Additionally, although Langmuir is credited with the idea for the layers in the first place, his work was based on a paper published by Agnes Pockels in 1891, which demonstrated that areas of film can be controlled by barriers. As Dr. Burtron H. Davis of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research put it, “Langmuir did better surface science work than Pockels,” but it was “merely an improvement of her work.”