Ada Lovelace, 1815 – 1852

We wouldn’t have computer technology today if it wasn’t for Augusta Ada King aka Ada Lovelace. Her childhood was one of great privilege and prestige. She was the only (legitimate) child of George Gordon Byron better known to history as Lord Byron. When she was still very small her mother, Lady Anne Isabella Byron, separated from Lord Byron. She was given full custody of her child. Lady Byron didn’t want her daughter to end up like her father so she had her tutored primarily in mathematics and music. She was a natural. Ada was further encouraged to pursue math from Mary Somerville, a prominent mathematician. A few years later at one of Ms. Somerville’s dinner parties she heard Charles Babbage idea for a calculating engine. From this point Ada and Charles became lifelong friends. Ada promptly started helping with the calculating engine. They helped each other with various projects but had different ideas for the calculating engine. Charles just wanted to have it calculate and that’s about it. He had prior attempted to invent the difference engine, which he didn’t finish. Ada wanted this new calculating engine to basically be a computer as we know them today. She is considered one of the first, if not the first, computer programmers. She and Charles worked on 2 different engines, one is calculating and the other is an analytical engine. These were not finished unfortunately.

Ada married William King, Count of Lovelace, in 1835. They had 3 children. Throughout her life she suffered from various illnesses and passed from cancer at 37.

Eliza Frances Andrews, 1840 – 1931

Eliza is known as a prestigious writer but also was active in the science community. She was born in an upper class Georgia family. She was privileged and encouraged to be educated. After graduating from the LaGrange College in 1857, she wrote for several newspapers. Post-Civil War her family’s lost nearly everything. Eliza chose to remain independent and not get married. She became a full-time writer and built a legendary career.

This whole time she was interested in botany. It wasn’t until the 1900s that she finally made her lifelong love a career move. She wrote several textbooks on the subject and submitted thousands of botanical specimens for many studies. This provided her a comfortable living for the rest of her life.

Sofia Kovalevskaya, 1850 – 1891

Sofia didn’t live long but became one of the top mathematicians of all time. She was born into a minor Russian noble family. She had the nickname, “Little Sparrow” as a child. A love of math was introduced very early. Her father had calculus notes in place of wall paper around her nursery, this planted the seed. She taught herself trigonometry when she read a physics book and didn’t fully understand it. Her neighbor, Professor Tyrtov, encouraged her to continue on this path. He talked her father into allowing her more education. So Sofia went to St. Petersburg for school. After graduating she wanted to attend college and most universities at the time barred women. The nearest one was in Switzerland and required its female students to be married. Sofia married Vladimir Kovalevkaya just to attend college.  After graduating she continued tutoring under the best mathematicians. She became the first woman to receive a Ph. D in Math in 1874 from the University of Gottingen. She wrote 3 papers to get it. They were on the following topics, partial differential equations, Abelian integrals, and Saturn’s rings.

It took 6 years to get a job in math. Even though she had the best mathematicians supporting her, no one wanted to hire a woman for a math position. She taught math for elementary school girls. Vladimir killed himself in 1883. The next year she became the first woman hired to a university chair seat in Europe. Her star rose over the next few years. She met and fell in love with Maxim Kovalevsky, a sociologist. They had a tumultuous affair for a few years. They split shortly after. She won the Prix Bordin, an international award for mathematical achievement, for her paper, On the Problem of the Rotation of a Solid Body about a Fixed Point. She died from the flu three years later.

Agnes Arber, 1879 – 1960

In the world of botany not many have left a mark quite like Agnes Arber. She was born in London to the Robertson family. Her father was an artist and taught her various techniques something that she later used in her books. Her science teacher, Edith Aitkin Arber, fostered a love of botany in young Agnes. She won a botany scholarship and met Ethel Sargent, a plant morphologist, who became a mentor and colleague. Agnes first published botanical work appeared in her school magazine in 1894. She continued working in botany and met fellow botanist, Edward Arber. They married in 1909. It was a happy marriage until he died suddenly in 1918.

Her first book, Their Origin and Evoluton, came out in 1912. This was a history of botany. She followed it up with Water Plants: A Study in Aquati Angiosperms, Monocotyledons: A Morphological, and many more after these. She switched from science to philosophy in her later years after her health started failing. She was the first female botanist in the Royal Society.

Vilma Hugonnai, 1847 – 1922

In the world of medicine, she’s a trailblazer. She was the first licensed female doctor in Hungry. Her journey was a rocky one but she broke though and made it easier for other women in medicine. She was born into a noble family. She had an interest in medicine early on. Her mother had tuberculous and as a result, Vilma only got to see her a few minutes a day. This was where an interest in medicine began. She married George Szilassy, who was 20 years her senior. She was 18 at the time. As a bored housewife she saw an ad to work in a medical faculty at the University of Zurich. She saw that women can work there. Vilma graduated as a surgeon in 1879. She was offered several jobs as a surgeon but women weren’t allowed to be doctors. However, women could be midwives. She was a midwife against the behest of her husband. They divorced and she remarried an art professor, Vince Wartha. She was an active midwife for years. Vince liked and encouraged her independence. At this time she becomes very active in the Women’s Movement. She is one of the founders of the Hungarian National Association for Women’s Education along with noted Hungarian feminist leader, Palne Veres. In 1895, it became legal for women to be licensed doctors. On May 14, 1897 she became the first licensed female doctor in Hungarian history. During World War I she worked in military hospitals and received honors for her work. She died from congestive heart failure in 1922.

Louise Bourgeouis Boursier, 1563 – 1636

Much like Agnodice before her she was a practicing physician that specialized in childbirth. She took childbirth from rudimentary practice into a fully developed science. Most of what we know about her life is from her defense in a court case in 1627. She was born into a middle-class family. She married an army barber surgeon, Martin Boursier. During their marriage they had 3 children. Henry IV, the French King at the time, attacked Paris. Martin was away with the army forcing Louise and the kids to flee Paris. She had to sell off nearly everything the family owned to make ends meet for a while. She learned midwifery from Martin and applied a methodical approach to it. Some sources cite she attended a school for midwifery but regardless she learned it from someone.

She was officially licensed to practice in 1598. After moving to Saint-Andre-des-Arts Louise established a practice and quickly built a wonderful reputation. In 1600, Henry IV was seeking a quality mid-wife. Louise was highly recommended and selected. She delivered 6 out of 6 of the king’s children. In 1609, she released her first book of several books on midwifery, Diverse Observations on Sterility; Loss of the Ovum after Fecundation, Fecundity and Childbirth; Diseases of Women and of Newborn Infants. It utilized common sense and basic knowledge that we don’t think twice about now. She was sued in 1627 after the death of a noblewoman in childbirth. She was blamed by numerous doctors for this. Louise didn’t take any of this and fought back. Her career continued and pushed the boundaries of midwifery.

Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze, 1758 – 1836

Her accomplishments are debatable given she was primarily just an assistant but she helped her husband Antoine Laurent Lavoisier. Her father was a lawyer whom when was of age to marry, went on the hunt for her future husband. Initially it was the ripe 50 yr old Count d’Amerval but her father declined. A young colleague of her father named Antoine Lavoisier, requested her hand in marriage and allowed it. She assisted her husband throughout his career and life but he was executed during the first French Revolution. She married another scientist in 1805, Benjamin Thompson. They divorced four years later. Allegedly she poured boiling water on his garden at some point. Not much is known about her after this.

Her exact role regarding her first husband is not clear. She was taught by him and learned the various sciences he employed. However, it is not explicitly recorded that she did actual the science. Regardless she has a place in the history of science that more people should know about.

Emilie Du Chatelet, 1706 – 1749

In a world where it was frowned upon for women to be educated and rise above, Emilie Du Chatelet was a broke through the atmosphere and kept going. Her father was a Baron and they lived a lavish high-class life. Young Emilie loved it. Like most children of royalty she was educated in a variety of subjects. Her passion was always mathematics even though she exceled in languages. She married Marquis Florent-Claude de Chalelet-Lomont in 1725 at the age of 16. They had 3 children. Their third child died after a year. During all this she pursued mathematics, science, and philosophy professionally. She had the best tutors teach her plus an innate interest and love for the subjects thus she was a natural.

In 1733 she took Voltaire as a lover. He first met her when she was still a child. They remained close friends and lovers until her death. In 1742, she had a 4^th baby from her other lover Jean-Francois de Saint-Lambert. She died in childbirth having Jean-Francois’s second baby. Her most famous work the Fiundations of Physics was completed in 1740. It was briefly in circulation but she did a major overhaul making it as perfect as she could. It covered God, metaphysics, and a variety of other subjects. It helped bring introduce Newtonian thought into the French Intelligentsia. Du Chatelet in short time became one of the top scientists of her era.

Ellen Hutchins, 1785 – 1815

Even though her career was very short she left a big impact in botany and bryology. Ms. Hutchins spent her school years with family friend Dr. Whitley Stokes. This is where her love of botany was fostered and grew into a career. She was introduced to other prominent botanists of the era who encouraged her further to pursue being a full-fledged scientist. Ellen specialized in cryptogams, plants that are non-flowering. She was an expert in mosses, seaweed, lichens, and ferns. Many new and rare species were discovered by her but she did not want her name attached to the discovery. So she didn’t get much credit for her years of work. She discovered half of the species identified in British Jungermanniae (1816). Some of her discoveries are featured in Smith and Sowerby’s English Botany volumes. Through her brother she is distantly related to Florence Nightingale. Due to illness she rarely left Bantry Bay. It’s believed she died of tuberculosis a few weeks before her 30^th birthday.

Jane Marcet, 1769 – 1858

Most of the people in this series were/are scientists or assisted scientists. Jane Marcet is an outlier. She wrote introductory books on science and politics. She was raised in wealthy Swiss family, the Haldimands that resided in England. Due to this Jane was able to receive an equal education to her brother. She was lucky enough to also learn mathematics and science. Jane married Alexander Marcet, a Swiss doctor. They attended lectures of Humphry Davy which inspired her to write Conversations on Chemistry. Her name didn’t appear on it until 1832. In this she simplified complex scientific principles. It was aimed at girls initially but children of all ages read it. It went through numerous editions and printings through the years. It was first used as a textbook in 1865 by the Boston Girls’ High and Normal School. Michael Faraday cited this as the reason he wanted to be a scientist. The book was followed by others on other subjects. She lived out her years with her daughter in London.

Cleopatra the Alchemist, 3^rd Century CE

Some of you reading this may be thinking, “What does alchemy have to do with science?” Even though it was ultimately fruitless in turning everything into gold, it did lead to the establishment of chemistry.

Not much is known about her. Apparently this was a pseudonym but there are no records left of what her actual name was. She might have been a colleague or follower of Miriam the Prophetess. No record left says one or the other but it is known that they knew of each other. This is not the same person as Cleopatra the Physician.

Her most famous work is the papyrus paper known as the Chrysopeoeia of Cleopatra. It included the detailed descriptions of furnaces. Also this features the earliest appearance of the Ouroboros. Some theorize that she invited the Alembic, a tool used in distilling chemicals. This is still used today. She is famously mentioned in very high regard in the encyclopedia, Kitab al-Fihrist, by Muslim scholar Ibn al-Nadim.

Miriam the Prophetess, 3^rd Century CE

She has gone a few different names including Maria the Jewess, Mary the Jewess, Mariya the Sage, Maria Hebraea, and Maria Prophetissima. The majority of what we know about her comes the Egyptian alchemist, Zosimos, a contemporary of her. She was aware of Cleopatra the Alchemist but their exact relationship if at all is not known.

Mary is most famous for the allegedly inventing the tribikos, the first piece of distilling equipment. Aside from this next to nothing to known about her unfortunately however she is also accredited with creating the double boiler.

Aglaonike, 3^rd BCE

Much like other notable scientists of her time there is not a great deal of information is still around. Aglaonike resided in Thessaly and a prominent astronomer. She successfully understood and predicted the moon cycles and lunar eclipses. Something you’ll frequently find about her is that people thought she was a sorceress and witch. Even Plato and Socrates refer to her in their writings as a witch. This could have been done to discredit her which is most likely. She was not a witch. She was just ahead of her time.

Agnodice, 4^th Century BCE

She was the first female doctor in recorded history. In 350 BCE, Agnodice dressed as a man to learn midwifery and did. She was one of the best and a beloved gynecologist, to the point that male doctors were suspicious. Agnodice practiced dressed as a man. They sued her for corrupting the women of Athens. There were even accusations of rape. They forced her to reveal her true gender. (Dramatic Music) A Woman Is A Doctor! Initially things looked grim but a large gathering of women showed up for support of Agnodice. The judge ruled that she could still practice. A year later, the law was changed and women could become doctors. There are no primary sources about her and some think this is just a tall tale to inspire women and show that women can be doctors. Regardless she is still an empowering historical figure.

Sophia Brahe, 1556 – 1643 CE

Most people know who Tycho Brahe was. Most people know Johannes Kepler as Tycho’s assistant that helped him become the legend is now. What most people don’t know is that Tycho’s little sister, Sophia, also helped him and was an equally great scientist in her own right.

She came from a noble Danish family and like Tycho went against their parents’ wishes and studied science instead of following in the family’s footsteps. She learned in secret from Tycho. He called her his Urania, goddess of the stars, to her Apollo, god of the sun. She married a rich noble man and taught herself astronomy and Latin. They had one son, Tage Thott. Her husband died and left the estate to her. She successfully ran it until Tage was an adult. This whole time she was actively studying alchemy, astronomy, astrology, and chemistry. At this point however pseudo-science and actual science were viewed in the same light. So astrology was seen as a real science. Her brother, Tycho, was hired around this time to do astronomic and astrologic predictions for royalty and he had Sophia’s help in this.

She helped Tycho discover the, Nova Stella, supernova when she was only 16. She became a regular assistant to Tycho while he was under the tutelage of nobles. A year after her brother died she married a second time. They were very poor and forced to move around because of debt. He died in 1613. From here a relative, probably her son financially supported her until she died. She spent the remaining writing genealogy for royalty. Her accomplishments unfortunately went overlooked for years.