Women in chemistry
This is a list of women chemists. It should include those who have been important to the development or practice of chemistry. Their research or application has made significant contributions in the area of basic or applied chemistry.
Nobel Laureates
- 2018 – Frances Arnold - directed evolution to engineer enzymes
- 2009 – Ada E. Yonath - structure & function of the ribosome
- 1964 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - protein crystallography
- 1935 – Irène Joliot-Curie - artificial radioactivity
- 1911 – Marie Sklodowska-Curie - discovery of radium & polonium
L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science Laureates (Chemistry)
- 2015 - Xie Yi - inorganic chemistry
- 2015 - Molly S. Shoichet - photochemistry
- 2011 - Faiza Al-Harafi - electrochemistry
List of Women Chemists
19th Century
- Mary Watson, one of the first two female chemistry students at the University of Oxford
- Margaret Seward, one of the first two female chemistry students at the University of Oxford; signed the 1904 petition to the Chemical Society
- Vera Bogdanovskaia, one of the first female Russian chemists
- Gerty Cori Jewish Czech-American biochemist who was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in science
- Ida Freund, first woman to be a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom
- Louise Hammarström, Swedish mineral chemist, first formally trained female Swedish chemist
- Edith Humphrey, inorganic chemist, probably the first British woman to gain a doctorate in chemistry
- Julia Lermontova, Russian chemist, first Russian female doctorate in chemistry
- Laura Linton, American chemist, teacher, & physician
- Rachel Lloyd - first American female to earn a doctorate in chemistry, first regularly admitted female member of the American Chemical Society, studied sugar beets
- Muriel Wheldale Onslow, British biochemist
- Marie Pasteur, French chemist and bacteriologist
- Mary Engle Pennington, American chemist
- Agnes Pockels, German chemist
- Vera Popova, Russian chemist
- Anna Sundström, Swedish chemist
- Clara Immerwahr, was the first woman to get her doctorate in Chemistry in Germany.
- Ellen Swallow Richards, American industrial and environmental chemist
- Anna Volkova, Russian chemist
- Nadezhda Olimpievna Ziber-Shumova, Russian chemist
- Fanny Rysan Mulford Hitchcock, one of thirteen women to graduate with a degree in Chemistry in the 1800s, and the first to graduate with a doctorate in Philosophy of Chemistry. Her areas of focus were in entomology, fish osteology, and plant pathology.
20th Century
- Nancy Allbritton, American analytical and biochemist
- Valerie Ashby, American chemist
- Barbara Askins, American chemist
- Alice Ball, American chemist
- Carolyn Bertozzi, American biochemist
- Cynthia Burrows, American Physical Organic Chemist
- Asima Chatterjee, Indian Organic Chemist
- Sherry Chemler, American Organic Chemist
- Astrid Cleve, Swedish chemist
- Mildred Cohn, American chemist
- Janine Cossy, French Organic Chemist
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish-French chemist, Nobel prize in physics 1903 and Nobel prize in chemistry 1911
- Jillian Lee Dempsey, American chemist
- Sheila DeWitt, American Organic Chemist
- Vy M. Dong, American Organic Chemist
- Abigail Doyle, American Organic Chemist
- Odile Eisenstein, French, Theoretical chemist
- Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist
- Margaret Faul, Irish/American Organic Chemist
- Mary Peters Fieser, American Organic Chemist
- Marye Anne Fox, American Physical Organic Chemist
- Rosalind Franklin, British Physical chemist and crystallographer
- Helen Murray Free, American chemist
- Gunda I. Georg, German trained Medicinal chemist, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the US
- Ellen Gleditsch, Norwegian radiochemist
- Anna J. Harrison, American Organic chemist
- Darleane C. Hoffman, American Nuclear chemist
- Icie Hoobler, American Biochemist
- Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British crystallographer, Nobel prize in chemistry 1964
- Donna M. Huryn, American Organic Chemist
- Clara Immerwahr, German chemist
- Allene Rosalind Jeanes, American Organic chemist
- Malika Jeffries-EL, American Organic Chemist
- Irène Joliot-Curie, French chemist and nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1935
- Madeleine M. Joullié, Brazilian, American Organic Chemist
- Isabella Karle, American Crystallographer
- Joyce Jacobson Kaufman, American Chemist, Pharmacologist
- Judith Klinman, American Biochemist
- Marisa Kozlowski, American Organic Chemist
- Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist, inventor of Kevlar
- Kathleen Lonsdale, British crystallographer
- Yvonne Connolly Martin, American physical biochemist working on cheminformatics and computer-aided drug design in the US
- Marie Marynard Daly, First African American woman to earn her PhD in the United States
- Cynthia A. Maryanoff, American Organic/Medicinal Chemist
- Elizabeth Moran, British chemist and public analyst
- Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist
- Helen Vaughn Michel, American nuclear chemist
- Alexandra Navrotsky, American Geochemist
- Dorothy Virginia Nightingale, American Organic Chemist
- Kathlyn Parker, American Organic Chemist
- Emma Parmee, British born Medicinal/Organic Chemist
- Mary Engle Pennington, American food chemist
- Eva Philbin, Irish chemist
- Darshan Ranganathan, Indian Organic chemist
- Mildred Rebstock, American Pharmaceutical chemist
- Sibyl Martha Rock, American pioneer in mass spectrometry and computing
- Elizabeth Rona, Hungarian nuclear chemist and polonium expert
- Mary Swartz Rose, Nutrition chemist
- Melanie Sanford, American Organic chemist
- Maxine L. Savitz, Organic and Electrochemist
- Patsy Sherman, American chemist, co-inventor of Scotchgard
- Odette L. Shotwell, Organic chemist
- Jean'ne Shreeve, American Organic chemist
- Dorothy M. Simon, American Physical chemist
- Susan Solomon, Atmospheric chemist
- JoAnne Stubbe, American Biochemist
- Ida Noddack Tacke, German chemist and physicist
- Giuliana Tesoro, Polymer chemist
- Margaret Thatcher, British chemist and Prime Minister.
- Jean Thomas, British biochemist
- Martha J. B. Thomas, Analytical chemist and chemical engineer
- Ann E. Weber, American Organic/Medicinal Chemist
- Karen Wetterhahn, American metal toxicologist
- Ruth R. Wexler, American Organic and Medicinal Chemist, discoverer of two marketed drugs
- M. Christina White, American Organometallic chemist
- Charlotte Williams, English Inorganic Chemist
- Angela K. Wilson, American computational, theoretical, and physical chemist
- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American Biochemist
- Jean Youatt, Australian chemist, biochemist, and microbiologist
- Ada Yonath, Israeli crystallographer, Nobel prize in Chemistry 2009
- Glaci Zancan, Brazilian Biochemist, president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of the Science from 1999-2003
21st Century
- Emily Balskus, American organic chemist and microbiologist
- Jeanne Hardy, American biophysicist and chemical biologist
- Geraldine Harriman, American executive and medicinal chemist
- Rachel Haurwitz, American biochemist and structural biologist
- Lisa Marcaurelle, American synthetic chemist in industry
- Catherine J. Murphy, American chemist
- Sarah O'Connor, American plant synthetic biologist working in England
- Sarah E Reisman, American Organic Chemist
- Seble Wagaw, American process chemist and pharma exec
- Marcey Lynn Waters, American chemical biologist and supramolecular chemist
- Jenny Y Yang, American chemist and clean energy researcher at UCI
- Wendy Young, American chemist at Genentech