List of female scientists in the 20th century
This is a historical list dealing with women scientists in the 20th century. During this time period, women working in scientific fields were rare. Women at this time faced barriers in higher education and often denied access to scientific institutions; in the Western world, the first-wave feminist movement began to break down many of these barriers.
Anthropology
- Katharine Bartlett, American physical anthropologist, museum curator
- Ruth Benedict, American anthropologist
- Anna Bērzkalne, Latvian folklorist and ethnographer
- Alicia Dussán de Reichel, Colombian anthropologist
- Dina Dahbany-Miraglia, American Yemini linguistic anthropologist, educator
- Zora Neale Hurston, American folklorist and anthropologist
- Marjorie F. Lambert, American archeologist and anthropologist who studied Southwestern Puebloan peoples
- Dorothea Leighton, American social psychiatrist, founded the field of medical anthropology
- Katharine Luomala, American anthropologist
- Margaret Mead, American anthropologist
- Grete Mostny, Austrian-born Chilean anthropologist and archaeologist
- Miriam Tildesley, British anthropologist
- Mildred Trotter, American forensic anthropologist
- Camilla Wedgwood, British/Australian anthropologist
- Alba Zaluar, Brazilian anthropologist specializing in urban anthropology
Archaeology
- Sonia Alconini, Bolivian archaeologist of the Formative Period of the Lake Titicaca basin
- Birgit Arrhenius, Swedish archaeologist
- Dorothea Bate, British archaeologist and pioneer of archaeozoology.
- Alex Bayliss British archaeologist
- Crystal Bennett, British archaeologist whose research focused on Jordan
- Zeineb Benzina Tunisian archeologist
- Jole Bovio Marconi, Italian archaeologist and prehistorian
- Juliet Clutton-Brock, British zooarchaeologist who specialized in domestic animals
- Dorothy Charlesworth, British archaeologist and expert on Roman glass
- Lily Chitty, British archaeologist who specialized in the preshistoric history of Wales and the
- Mary Kitson Clark, British archaeologist best known for her work on the Roman-British in Northern England
- Bryony Coles British prehistoric archaeologist
- Alana Cordy-Collins, American archaeologist specializing in Peruvian prehistory
- Rosemary Cramp, British archaeologist whose research focuses on Anglo-Saxons in Britain
- Joan Breton Connelly American classical archaeologist
- Margaret Conkey, American archaeologist
- Hester A. Davis,, American archaeologist who was instrumental in establishing public policy and ethical standards
- Frederica de Laguna , American archaeologist best known for her work on the archaeology of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska
- Kelly Dixon, American archaeologist specializing in the American West
- Janette Deacon, South African archaeologist specializing in rock art conservation
- Elizabeth Eames, British archaeologist who was an expert on medieval tiles
- Anabel Ford, American archaeologist
- Aileen Fox, British archaeologist known excavating prehistoric and Roman sites throughout the United Kingdom
- Alison Frantz, American archaeological photographer and Byzantine scholar
- Honor Frost, Turkish archaeologist who specialized in underwater archaeology
- Perla Fuscaldo, Argentine egyptologist
- Elizabeth Baldwin Garland, American archaeologist
- Kathleen K. Gilmore, American archaeologist known for her research in Spanish colonial archaeology
- Dorothy Garrod, British archaeologist who specialized in the Palaeolithic period
- Roberta Gilchrist, Canadian archaeologist specializing in medieval Britain
- Marija Gimbutas, Lithuanian archaeologist
- Hetty Goldman, American archaeologist and one of the first female archaeologists to conduct excavations in the Middle East and Greece
- Audrey Henshall, British archaeologist and prehistorian
- Corinne Hofman, Dutch archaeologist
- Cynthia Irwin-Williams, American archaeologist of the prehistoric Southwest
- Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski, American archaeologist who specialized in the ancient site of Pompei
- Margaret Ursula Jones, British archaeologist best known for directing Britain's largest archaeological excavation at Mucking, Essex
- Rosemary Joyce, American archaeologist who uncovered chocolate's archaeological record and studies Honduran pre-history
- Kathleen Kenyon, British archaeologist known for her research on the Neolothic culture in Egypt and Mesopotamia
- Alice Kober, American classical archaeologist best known for her research that led to the deciphering of Linear B
- Kristina Killgrove, American bioarchaeologist
- Winifred Lamb, British archaeologist
- Mary Leakey, British archaeologist known for discovering Proconsul remains which are now believed to be human's ancestor
- Li Liu , Chinese-American archaeologist specializing in Neolithic and Bronze Age China
- Anna Marguerite McCann, American archaeologist known for her work in underwater archaeology
- Isabel McBryde, Australian archaeologist
- Betty Meehan, Australian anthropologist and archaeologist
- Audrey Meaney, British archaeologist and expert on Anglo-Saxon England
- Margaret Murray, British-Indian Egyptologist and the first woman to be appointed a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom
- Bertha Parker Pallan, American archaeologist known for being the first female Native American archaeologist
- Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Russian-American archaeologist who contributed significantly to deciphering the Maya hieroglyphs.
- Charlotte Roberts, British bioarchaeologist
- Margaret Rule, British archaeologist led the excavation of the Tudor Warship ''Mary Rose'
- Elisabeth Ruttkay,, Austrian Neolithic and Bronze Age specialist
- Hanna Rydh, Swedish archaeologist and prehistorian
- Elizabeth Slater, British archaeologist who specialized in British archaeologist archaeometallurgy
- Julie K. Stein, Researches prehistoric humans in the Pacific Northwest
- Hoang Thi Than, Vietnamese geological engineer and archaeologist
- Birgitta Wallace, Swedish–Canadian archaeologist whose research focuses on Norse migration to North America.
- Zheng Zhenxiang, Chinese archaeologist and Bronze Age specialist
Astronomy
- Claudia Alexander, American planetary scientist
- Mary Adela Blagg, British astronomer
- Margaret Burbidge, British astrophysicist
- Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Northern Irish-British astrophysicist
- Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer
- Janine Connes, French astronomer
- A. Grace Cook, British astronomer
- Heather Couper, British astronomer
- Joy Crisp, American planetary scientist
- Nancy Crooker, American space physicist
- Sandra Faber, American astronomer
- Joan Feynman, American space physicist
- Pamela Gay, American astronomer
- Vera Fedorovna Gaze, Russian astronomer
- Julie Vinter Hansen, Danish astronomer
- Martha Haynes, American astronomer
- Lisa Kaltenegger, Austrian/American astronomer
- Dorothea Klumpke, American-born astronomer
- Henrietta Leavitt, American astronomer
- Evelyn Leland, American astronomer working at the Harvard College Observatory
- Priyamvada Natarajan, Indian/American astrophysicist
- Carolyn Porco, American planetary scientist
- Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, British-American astronomer
- Ruby Payne-Scott, Australian radio astronomer
- Vera Rubin, American astronomer
- Charlotte Moore Sitterly, American astronomer
- Jill Tarter, American astronomer
- Beatrice Tinsley, New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist
Biology
- Nora Lilian Alcock, British plant pathologist
- Alice Alldredge, American oceanographer and researcher of marine snow, discover of Transparent Exopolymer Particles and demersal hellon
- June Almeida, British virologist
- E. K. Janaki Ammal, Indian botanist
- Vandika Ervandovna Avetisyan Armenian botanist and mycologist
- Denise P. Barlow, British geneticist
- Yvonne Barr, British virologist
- Lela Viola Barton, American botanist
- Kathleen Basford, British botanist
- Gillian Bates, British geneticist
- Val Beral, British–Australian epidemiologist
- Grace Berlin, American ecologist, ornithologist and historian
- Agathe L. van Beverwijk, Dutch mycologist
- Gladys Black, American ornithologist
- Idelisa Bonnelly, Dominican Republic marine biologist
- Alice Middleton Boring, American biologist
- Annette Frances Braun, American entomologist, expert on microlepidoptera
- Victoria Braithwaite, British biologist and ichthyologist.
- Linda B. Buck, American neuroscientist
- Hildred Mary Butler, Australian microbiologist
- Esther Byrnes, American biologist and science teacher
- Bertha Cady, American entomologist and educator
- Audrey Cahn Australian microbiologist and nutritionist
- Eleanor Carothers, American zoologist, geneticist and cytologist
- Rachel Carson, American marine biologist and conservationist
- Edith Katherine Cash, American mycologist and lichenologist
- Ann Chapman, New Zealand biologist and limnologist
- Martha Chase, American molecular biologist
- Mary-Dell Chilton, American molecular biologist
- Theresa Clay, English entomologist
- Edith Clements, American botanist and pioneer of botanical ecology
- Elzada Clover, American botanist
- Ursula M. Cowgill, American biologist and anthropologist
- Gerty Theresa Cori, American biochemist
- Suzanne Cory, Australian immunologist/cancer researcher
- Janet Darbyshire, British epidemiologist
- Gertrude Crotty Davenport, American zoologist and eugenicist
- Nina Demme, Russian arctic explorer and ornithologist
- Sophie Charlotte Ducker, Australian botanist
- Sylvia Earle, American marine biologist, oceanographer and explorer
- Sophia Eckerson, American botanist
- Sylvia Edlund, Canadian botanist
- Charlotte Elliott, American plant physiologist
- Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis, American botanist
- Vera Danchakoff Russian anatomist, cell biologist and embryologist, "mother of stem cells"
- Rhoda Erdmann, German cell biologist
- Katherine Esau, German-American botanist
- Edna H. Fawcett, American botanist
- Catherine Feuillet, French molecular biologist who was the first scientist to map the wheat chromosome 3B
- Victoria Foe, American developmental biologist, and Research Professor at the University of Washington's Center for Cell Dynamics.
- Dian Fossey, American zoologist
- Faith Fyles, Canada's first botanical artist
- Birutė Galdikas, German primatologist and conservationist
- Margaret Sylvia Gilliland, Australian biochemist
- Jane Goodall, British biologist, primatologist
- Isabella Gordon, Scottish marine biologist
- Susan Greenfield, British neurophysiologist
- Charlotte Elliott, American plant physiologist
- Constance Endicott Hartt, American botanist
- Eliza Amy Hodgson, New Zealand botanist
- Lena B. Smithers Hughes, American botanist, developed strains of the Valencia orange
- Maria Isabel Hylton Scott, Argentine zoologist and malacologist
- Eva Jablonka, Polish/Israeli biologist and philosopher
- Adele Juda, Austrian neurologist
- Marian Koshland, American immunologist
- Frances Adams Le Sueur, British botanist and ornithologist
- Margaret Reed Lewis, American cell biologist and embryologist
- Maria Carmelo Lico, Italo-Argentinian-Brazilian neuroscientist
- Gloria Lim, Singaporean mycologist, first woman Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Singapore
- Liliana Lubinska, Polish neuroscientist
- Misha Mahowald, American neuroscientist
- Irene Manton, British botanist, cytologist
- Lynn Margulis, American biologist
- Deborah Martin-Downs, Canadian aquatic biologist, ecologist
- Sara Branham Matthews, American microbiologist
- Mary MacArthur, Canadian food scientist, dehydration and freezing of fresh foods
- Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine 1983
- Eileen McCracken, Irish botanist
- Ruth Colvin Starrett McGuire, American plant pathologist
- Anne McLaren, British developmental biologist
- Ethel Irene McLennan, Australian botanist
- Eunice Thomas Miner, American biologist, executive director of the New York Academy of Sciences 1939–1967
- Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist
- Marianne V. Moore, aquatic ecologist
- Ann Haven Morgan, American zoologist
- Ann Nardulli, American endocrinologist
- Margaret Newton, Canadian plant phytopathologist and mycologist
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German geneticist and developmental biologist
- Ida Shepard Oldroyd, American conchologist
- Daphne Osborne, British plant physiologist
- Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska, Polish veterinarian and epizootiologist
- Mary Parke, British marine botanist specialising in phycology, the study of algae
- Jane E. Parker, British botanist who researches the immune responses of plants
- Eva J. Pell, American plant pathologist
- Theodora Lisle Prankerd, British botanist
- Isabella Preston, Canadian ornamental plant breeder
- Joan Beauchamp Procter, British zoologist
- F. Gwendolen Rees, British parasitologist
- Anita Roberts, American molecular biologist, "mother of TGF-Beta"
- Edith A. Roberts, American botanist and plant ecology pioneer
- Gudrun Ruud, Norwegian zoologist specializing in embryology
- Hazel Schmoll, American botanist
- Eva Schönbeck-Temesy Austrian botanist of Hungarian descent
- Idah Sithole-Niang, biochemist focusing on cowpea production and disease
- Margaret A. Stanley, British virologist and epithelial biologist
- Phyllis Starkey, British biochemist and medical researcher
- Magda Staudinger , Latvian-German biologist and chemist
- Sarah Stewart, Mexican American microbiologist
- Ragnhild Sundby, Norwegian zoologist
- Felicitas Svejda, Canadian botanist
- Maria Telkes, Hungarian-American biophysicist
- Lois H. Tiffany, American mycologist
- Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Mexican American molecular cellular biologist
- Karen Vousden, British cancer researcher
- Elisabeth Vrba, South African paleontologist
- Marvalee Wake, American biologist researching limbless amphibians, educator
- Jane C. Wright, American oncologist
- Kono Yasui, Japanese cytologist
- Eleanor Anne Young, American nutritionist and educator
- Mary Sophie Young - American Botanist
Chemistry
- Maria Abbracchio Italian pharmacologist who works with purinergic receptors and identified GPR17. On Reuter's most cited list since 2006.
- Marian Ewurama Addy Ghanaian biochemist, specializing in herbal medicine; first woman in Ghana to attain the rank of full professor in the natural sciences; winner of the UNESCO Kalinga Prize in 1999
- Barbara Askins, American chemist
- Alice Ball, American chemist
- Ulrike Beisiegel, German biochemist, researcher of liver fats and first female president of the University of Göttingen
- Anne Beloff-Chain, British biochemist
- Jeannette Brown, medicinal chemist, writer, educator
- Astrid Cleve, Swedish chemist
- Seetha Coleman-Kammula Indian chemist and plastics designer, turned environmentalist
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish-French chemist, Nobel prize in physics 1903 and Nobel prize in chemistry 1911
- Mary Campbell Dawbarn, Australian biochemist
- Moira Lenore Dynon, Australian chemist
- Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist
- Claire E. Eyers, British mass spectrometist
- Gwendolyn Wilson Fowler, American chemist and first licensed African American pharmacist in Iowa
- Rosalind Franklin, British physical chemist and crystallographer
- Ellen Gleditsch, Norwegian radiochemist
- Jenny Glusker, British biochemist, educator
- Emīlija Gudriniece, Latvian chemist and academic
- Anna J. Harrison, American organic chemist
- Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British crystallographer, Nobel prize in chemistry 1964
- Clara Immerwahr, German chemist
- Irène Joliot-Curie, French chemist and nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1935
- Chika Kuroda, Japanese chemist
- Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist, inventor of Kevlar
- Lidija Liepiņa , Latvian chemist, one of the first Soviet doctorates in chemistry.
- Kathleen Lonsdale, British crystallographer
- Grace Medes, American biochemist
- Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist
- Muriel Wheldale Onslow, British biochemist
- Helen T. Parsons, American biochemist
- Nellie M. Payne, American entomologist and agricultural chemist
- Eva Philbin, Irish chemist
- Darshan Ranganathan, Indian organic chemist
- Mildred Rebstock, American pharmaceutical chemist
- Elizabeth Rona, Hungarian nuclear chemist and polonium expert
- Patsy Sherman, American chemist, co-inventor of Scotchgard
- Marija Šimanska, Latvian chemist
- Ida Noddack Tacke, German chemist and physicist
- Grace Oladunni Taylor, Nigerian chemist 2nd woman inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Science
- Jean Thomas, British biochemist
- Michiyo Tsujimura, Japanese biochemist, agricultural scientist
- Joanna Maria Vandenberg, Dutch solid state chemist and crystallographer
- Elizabeth Williamson, English pharmacologist and herbalist
- Ada Yonath, Israeli crystallographer, Nobel prize in Chemistry 2009
- Christina Miller Scottish chemist, one of the first women elected to Royal Society of Edinburgh
Geology
- Zonia Baber, American geographer and geologist
- Inés Cifuentes, American seismologist and educator
- Moira Dunbar, Scottish-Canadian glaciologist
- Elizabeth F. Fisher, American geologist
- Regina Fleszarowa, Polish geologist
- Winifred Goldring, American paleontologist
- Eileen Hendriks, British geologist
- Edith Kristan-Tollmann, Austrian geologist and paleontologist
- Dorothée Le Maître, French paleontologist
- Karen Cook McNally , American seismologist
- Inge Lehmann Danish seismologist who discovered Earth's solid inner core
- Marcia McNutt, American geophysicist
- Ellen Louise Mertz, Danish engineering geologist
- Ruth Schmidt, American geologist
- Ethel Shakespear, English geologist
- Kathleen Sherrard, Australian geologist and palaeontologist
- Ethel Skeat, English paleontologist and geologist
- Marjorie Sweeting, British geomorphologist
- Marie Tharp, American geologist and oceanographic cartographer
- Elsa G. Vilmundardóttir, Iceland's first female geologist
- Marguerite Williams, American geologist
- Alice Wilson, Canadian geologist and paleontologist
- Elizabeth A. Wood, American crystallographer and geologist
Mathematics or computer science
- Hertha Marks Ayrton, British mathematician and electrical engineer
- Cecilia Berdichevsky pioneering Argentinian computer scientist
- Anita Borg, American computer scientist, founder of the Institute for Women and Technology
- Mary L. Cartwright, British mathematician
- Amanda Chessell, British computer scientist
- Ingrid Daubechies, Belgian mathematician
- Tatjana Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa, Russian/Dutch mathematician
- Deborah Estrin, American computer scientist
- Vera Faddeeva , Russian mathematician. One of the first to publish works on linear algebra.
- Shafi Goldwasser, American-Israel computer scientist.
- Evelyn Boyd Granville, American mathematician, second African-American woman to get a Ph.D. in mathematics
- Marion Cameron Gray, Scottish mathematician
- Barbara Grosz, American computer scientist; 1993 President of the AAAI
- Milly Koss, American computing pioneer
- Bryna Kra,, American mathematician
- Margaret Hamilton American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner.
- Frances Hardcastle, mathematician, founding member of the American Mathematical Society.
- Julia Hirschberg, American computer scientist and computational linguist
- Betty Holberton American computer programmer
- Grace Hopper, American computer scientist
- Margarete Kahn, German mathematician
- Lyudmila Keldysh Russia mathematician known for set theory and geometric topology
- Marta Kwiatkowska, Polish-British Computer scientist
- Marguerite Lehr, American mathematician
- Margaret Anne LeMone, mathematician and atmospheric scientist
- Barbara Liskov, American computer scientist for whom the Liskov substitution principle is named
- Margaret Millington, English mathematician
- Mangala Narlikar, Indian mathematician
- Klara Dan von Neumann Hungarian computer scientist
- Frances Northcutt, American engineer
- Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician
- Cicely Popplewell British software engineer, 1960s
- Karen Sparck Jones British computer scientist
- Dorothy Vaughan, American mathematician, worked at NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory
- Dorothy Maud Wrinch, British mathematician and theoretical biochemist
- Jeannette Wing, computer scientist, Microsoft Corporate Vice President
- Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician, first female recipient of the Fields medal
- Karen Uhlenbeck, American mathematician and founder of modern geometric analysis.
Science education
- Kathleen Jannette Anderson, Scottish biologist
- Susan Blackmore, British science writer
- Florence Annie Yeldham, British school teacher and historian of arithmetic
Engineering
- Zhenan Bao, American chemical engineer and materials scientist
- Frances Bradfield, British aeronautical engineer
- Jayne Bryant, Engineering Director for BAE Systems
- Nance Dicciani, American chemical engineer
- Ana María Flores, Bolivian engineer
- Kate Gleason, American engineer
- Ida Holz, Uruguayan engineer
- Frances Hugle, American engineer
- Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, British engineer
- Elsie MacGill, First Canadian female engineer
- Florence Violet McKenzie, first female electrical engineer in Australia
- Concepción Mendizábal Mendoza, first female civil engineer in Mexico
- Maria Tereza Jorge Pádua, Brazilian ecologist
- Katharina Paulus, German aeronaut
- Molly Shoichet, Canadian biomedical engineer
- Laura Anne Willson, British engineer and suffragette
Medicine
- Phyllis Margery Anderson, Australian pathologist
- Virginia Apgar, American obstetrical anesthesiologist
- Heather Ashton, English psychopharmacologist
- Anna Baetjer, American physiologist and toxicologist
- Roberta Bondar, Canadian, space medicine
- Dorothy Lavinia Brown, American surgeon
- Audrey Cahn, Australian nutritionist and microbiologist
- Margaret Chan, Chinese-Canadian health administrator; director of the World Health Organization
- Evelyn Stocking Crosslin, American physician
- Eleanor Davies-Colley, British surgeon
- Claire Fagin, American health-care researcher
- Sophia Getzowa, Belarusian-Israeli pathologist
- Esther Greisheimer, American academic and medical researcher
- L. Ruth Guy, American academic and pathologist
- Karen C. Johnson American physician and clinical trials specialist who is one of Reuter's most cited scientists
- Krista Kostial-Šimonović Croatian physiologist and heavy metals expert
- Mary Jeanne Kreek, American neurobiologist
- Elise L'Esperance, American pathologist
- Elaine Marjory Little, Australian pathologist
- Anna Suk-Fong Lok, Chinese/American hepatologist, wrote WHO and AASLD guidelines for emerging countries and liver disease
- Eleanor Josephine Macdonald pioneer American cancer epidemiologist and cancer researcher
- Catharine Macfarlane, American obstetrician and gynecologist
- Charlotte E. Maguire, Florida pediatrician and medical school benefactor
- Louisa Martindale, British surgeon
- Helen Mayo, Australian doctor and pioneer in preventing infant mortality
- Frances Gertrude McGill, Canadian forensic pathologist
- Eleanor Montague, American radiologist and radiotherapist
- Anne B. Newman, US Geriatrics & Gerontology expert
- Antonia Novello, Puerto Rican physician and Surgeon General of the United States
- Dorothea Orem, Nursing theorist
- Ida Ørskov, Danish bacteriologist
- May Owen, Texas pathologist, discovered talcum powder used on surgical gloves caused infection and peritoneal scarring
- Angeliki Panajiotatou, Greek physician and microbiologist
- Kathleen I. Pritchard, Canadian oncologist, breast cancer researcher and noted as one of Reuter's most cited scientists.
- Frieda Robscheit-Robbins, German-American pathologist
- Ora Mendelsohn Rosen, American medical researcher
- Una Ryan, Malaysian born-American, heart disease researcher, biotech vaccine and diagnostics maker/marketer
- Una M. Ryan, patented DNA test identifying the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium
- Velma Scantlebury, first woman of African descent to become a transplant surgeon in the U.S.
- Lise Thiry, Belgian virologist, senator
- Helen Rodríguez Trías, Puerto Rican American pediatrician and advocate for women's reproductive rights
- Marie Stopes British paleobotanist and pioneer in birth control
- Elizabeth M. Ward, American epidemiologist and head of the Epidemiology and Surveillance Research Department of the American Cancer Society
- Elsie Widdowson, British nutritionist
- Fiona Wood,, British-Australian plastic surgeon
Paleoanthropology
- Mary Leakey, British paleoanthropologist
- Suzanne LeClercq, Belgian paleobotanist and paleontologist
- Betty Kellett Nadeau, American paleontologist
Physics
- Faye Ajzenberg-Selove, American nuclear physicist,
- Betsy Ancker-Johnson, American plasma physicist
- Milla Baldo-Ceolin, Italian particle physicist
- Marietta Blau, German experimental particle physicist
- Lili Bleeker, Dutch physicist
- Katharine Blodgett, American thin-film physicist
- Christiane Bonnelle, French spectroscopist
- Sonja Ashauer, first Brazilian woman to earn a doctorate in physics
- Tatiana Birshtein, molecular scientist specializing in the physics of polymers
- Margrete Heiberg Bose, Danish physicist
- Jenny Rosenthal Bramley, Lithuanian-American physicist,
- Harriet Brooks, Canadian radiation physicist
- A. Catrina Bryce, Scottish laser scientist
- Nina Byers, American physicist
- Yvette Cauchois, French physicist
- Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, French theoretical physicist
- Patricia Cladis, Canadian/American physicist
- Esther Conwell, American physicist, semiconductors
- Cécile DeWitt-Morette, French mathematician and physicist
- Louise Dolan, American mathematical physicist, theoretical particle physics and superstring theory
- Nancy M. Dowdy, Nuclear physicist, arms control
- Mildred Dresselhaus, American physicist, graphite, graphite intercalation compounds, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and low-dimensional thermoelectrics
- Helen T. Edwards, American physicist, Tevatron
- Magda Ericson, French nuclear physicist
- Edith Farkas, Hungarian-born New Zealand meteorologist who measured ozone levels
- Joan Feynman American physicist
- Ursula Franklin, Canadian metallurgist, research physicist, author and educator
- Judy Franz, American physicist and educator
- Joan Maie Freeman, Australian physicist
- Phyllis S. Freier, American astrophysicist
- Mary K. Gaillard, American theoretical physicist
- Fanny Gates, American physicist
- Claire F. Gmachl, American physicist
- Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German-American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1963
- Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber, American nuclear physicist
- Sulamith Goldhaber, American high-energy physicist and molecular spectroscopist
- Gail Hanson, American high-energy physicist
- Margrete Heiberg Bose, Danish/Argentine physicist
- Evans Hayward, American physicist
- Caroline Herzenberg, American physicist
- Hanna von Hoerner, German astrophysicist
- Helen Schaeffer Huff, American physicist
- Shirley Jackson, American nuclear physicist, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, first African-American woman to earn a doctorate from M.I.T.
- Bertha Swirles Jeffreys, British physicist
- Lorella M. Jones, American particle physicist
- Carole Jordan, British solar physicist
- Renata Kallosh, Russian/American theoretical physicist
- Berta Karlik, Austrian physicist
- Bruria Kaufman
- Elizaveta Karamihailova, Bulgarian nuclear physicist
- Marcia Keith
- Ann Kiessling
- Margaret G. Kivelson
- Noemie Benczer Koller
- Ninni Kronberg, Swedish physiologist in nutrition
- Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf
- Elizabeth Laird
- Juliet Lee-Franzini
- Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist
- Kathleen Lonsdale
- Barbara Kegerreis Lunde, American physicist
- Margaret Eliza Maltby, American physicist
- Nina Marković, Croatian physicist and professor
- Helen Megaw
- Mileva Maric, Serbian physicist, first wife of Albert Einstein
- Lise Meitner, Austrian nuclear physicist
- Kirstine Meyer
- Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister
- Anna Nagurney Canadian-born, US operations researcher/management scientist focusing on networks
- Chiara Nappi, Italian American physicist
- Ann Nelson, American physicist
- Marcia Neugebauer,
- Gertrude Neumark
- Ida Tacke Noddack
- Emmy Noether, German mathematician and theoretical physicist
- Marguerite Perey
- Melba Phillips
- Agnes Pockels
- Pelageya Polubarinova-Kochina, Russian physicist
- Edith Quimby
- Helen Quinn, American particle physicist
- Lisa Randall, American physicist
- Myriam Sarachik, American physicist
- Bice Sechi-Zorn, Italian/American nuclear physicist
- Anneke Levelt Sengers, Dutch physicist specializing in the critical states of fluids
- Johanna Levelt Sengers, Dutch/American physicist
- Hertha Sponer, German/American physicist and chemist
- Isabelle Stone, American thin-film physicist and educator
- Edith Anne Stoney, Anglo-Irish medical physicist
- Nina Vedeneyeva, Russian geological physicist
- Afërdita Veveçka Priftaj Albanian physicist
- Katharine Way, American nuclear physicist
- Mariana Weissmann Argentine physicist, computational physics of condensed matter
- Lucy Wilson American physicist, working on optics and perception
- Leona Woods, American nuclear physicist
- Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist
- Sau Lan Wu, Chinese-American particle physicist
- Xide Xie , Chinese physicist
- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American medical physicist
- Fumiko Yonezawa, Japanese theoretical physicist
- Toshiko Yuasa, Japanese nuclear physicist
Psychology
- Mary Ainsworth, American-Canadian developmental psychologist, inventor of the "Strange Situation" procedure
- Martha E. Bernal, Mexican-American clinical psychologist, first Latina to receive a psychology PhD in the United States
- Lera Boroditsky, American psychologist
- Ludmilla A.Chistovich Russian speech scientist
- Mamie Clark, African-American psychologist active in the civil rights movement
- Helen Flanders Dunbar important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine
- Tsuruko Haraguchi, Japanese psychologist
- Margaret Kennard did pioneering research on age effects on brain damage, which produced early evidence for neuroplasticity
- Grace Manson, occupational psychologist
- Rosalie Rayner, American psychology researcher
- Marianne Simmel, American psychologist, made important contributions in research on social perception and phantom limb.
- Davida Teller, American psychologist, known for work on development of the visual system in infants.
- Nora Volkow, Mexican-American psychiatrist, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
- Margo Wilson, Canadian evolutionary psychologist
- Catherine G. Wolf, American psychologist and expert in human-computer interaction