top of page

Six Women Who Changed History

Grace Hopper, Margaret Dayhoff, Marie Curie, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Lene Hau, Amelia Earhart
Six Women Who Changed History

During Women’s History Month, we are reminded of how important women’s contributions to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are. Since women make up half of the global population, society needs their brain power and insights to solve problems and make life-enhancing discoveries. In this article, we celebrate six women in history that were not only the first women to do something, but the first people to do so.


  1. Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. She created the first computer compiler, which is the program that allows a computer processor to “understand” a programming language. Essentially, it converts the statements written in a particular programming language into the code that the processor uses. It was Grace Hopper that had the idea of creating a programming language based on the English language, which made developing a computer program much simpler and easier to understand. She co-created COBOL, a computing language still in use today.

  2. Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and the only person in history to have won Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields. The first prize (1903) was in Physics for her research on radiation (shared with her husband, Pierre), and the second (1911) was in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium.

  3. Margaret Oakley Dayhoff (1925-1983) was an American physical chemist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics, which applies technology to understanding biological data. For her doctoral dissertation, Dayhoff was the first to apply mass-data processing to theoretical chemistry, which won her a Watson Computer Laboratory Fellowship. She innovated so many firsts that we don’t have room to mention them all in this article. Two examples are the application of computers to infer evolutionary relationships from molecular sequences, and the creation of the PAM substitution matrix, which helps evaluate the mutation or evolution of amino acid sequences.

  4. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland and the first person to observe pulsars (1967), objects with huge mass (second in density only to black holes) that scientists now use to study extreme states of matter, measure cosmic distances, and other pursuits. In 2018, Bell Burnell won the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. She used the full amount of prize money (US$3 million) to create the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund to help close the gender gap in physics research.

  5. Lene Vestergaard Hau (b. 1959) is a Danish physicist who currently teaches Applied Physics at Harvard University. In 1998, she became the first person to slow down light. She led a team that succeeded in slowing light down to a speed of approximately 17 meters per second (vs. its normal speed of almost 300 million meters per second), and in 2001 was able to stop a light beam completely!

  6. Amelia Earhart (b. 1897, disappeared 1937): On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. Of course, she is most known for being the first female aviator to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart, her co-pilot and her plane all disappeared in 1937 while attempting a flight around the globe, and were never found.


Photo credits: U.S. Navy, NIH, Khan Academy, Physics World, Harvard.edu


 
 
 

Commentaires


GLAM, Glam, GLAM Ready to Lead, Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, (GLAM) Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, GLAM, Girls Leadership, Girls Online Leadership, Girls Leadership Program, Girls Leadership Events, Women in STEM, Women in STEAM, Women in Business, Girls STEM, Girls in STEM, Girls STEM Leadership, Girls Online STEM Leadership, GLAM eBay Event, GLAM Cisco Event, Empowering Girls to be the Leaders of Tomorrow, #100000WomenBy2030, Glam and United Nations Decade of Action, GLAM Role Models, Girls Leadership Roles, GLAM Leadership Roles. GLAM Positive Change, GLAM Female Leaders, GLAM Female Leadership, GLAM Female Leadership Programs, GLAM Female STEM Leadership, Girls STEAM Leadership, Girls STEM Education, Girls STEAM Education, Female STEM Speakers, GLAM Superpowers, GLAM Virtual Events, GLAM in-person events, transformational STEM education, GLAM transformational STEM education, FREE Leadership programs, FREE Girls leadership programs, FREE STEAM Leadership programs, FREE STEM Leadership programs, Female executives in STEM, Girls mentorship, Girls mentorship programs, GLAM mentorship programs, Girls Leadership for ages 8 to 12, Girls business roles, Girls empowerment programs, GLAM superpower surveys for Girls, Superpower Survey for Women, GLAM UK, GLAM US, GLAM BOARD, MENTORSEBAY, PRESS, ITALENT, HATCHBEAUTY, VOLUNTEER, SPONSOR FORM, IN-PERSON SPEAKERS, home, GLAM Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, (GLAM) Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, GLAM Girls Leadership, GLAM Girls Online Leadership, GLAM Girls Leadership Program, GLAM Girls Leadership Events, GLAM Women in STEM, GLAM Women in STEAM, GLAM Women in Business, GLAM Girls STEM, GLAM Girls in STEM, GLAM Girls STEM Leadership, GLAM Girls Online STEM Leadership, GLAM eBay Event, GLAM Cisco Event, GLAM Empowering Girls to be the Leaders of Tomorrow, GLAM #100000WomenBy2030, GLAM Girls Leadership Roles, GLAM Girls STEAM Leadership, GLAM Girls STEM Education, GLAM Girls STEAM Education, GLAM Female STEM Speakers, GLAM transformational STEM education, GLAM FREE Leadership programs, GLAM FREE Girls leadership programs, GLAM FREE STEAM Leadership programs, GLAM FREE STEM Leadership programs, GLAM Female executives in STEM, GLAM Girls mentorship, GLAM Girls mentorship programs, GLAM Girls Leadership for ages 8 to 12, GLAM Girls business roles, GLAM Girls empowerment programs, GLAM Superpower Survey for Women

Copyright © Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, NPO. All rights reserved

GLAM Ready to Lead, Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, (GLAM) Girls Leadership Academy Meetup, GLAM, Girls Leadership, Girls On

Girls Leadership Academy Meetup 

GLAM Ready To Lead

EIN# 26-1670171

iTalent Digital
300 O
rchard City Drive, Suite 136,

Campbell, CA 95008

T: 408-496-6200 ext 5

Join Our Mission!

 

Support GLAM Ready To Lead! Please follow us on socials and subscribe to our newsletter for program updates and new website content!

You're the best! Thanks for subscribing. 

bottom of page