Research Guides: Chemistry: Women in Chemistry

Women in Chemistry

Chemists are creators. Whether it’s the food we consume, gasoline we burn, lotions we apply, or medicines we use, a team of chemists is responsible for placing these modern conveniences at our fingertips. Some chemists go on to work in the pharmaceutical, consumer, oil and petroleum, or food industries, to name a few. The list of women chemists, as identified by Academicinfluence.com (last updated 2025), have all had major influences in chemistry. These are the most cited and searched women chemists over the past 30 years, according to their machine-powered Influence Ranking algorithm.

Jennifer Doudna
She is best known for her work with CRISPR. She, along with her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier, were the first to suggest that genes could be edited or reprogrammed, now considered one of the most impactful discoveries ever made in the field of biology.
Ada Yonath
Ada E. Yonath is an Israeli chemists Nobel laureate crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of ribosomes. In 1993 she visualized the path taken by the nascent proteins, namely the ribosomal tunnel. She discovered modes of action of over twenty different antibiotics targeting the ribosome, illuminated mechanisms of drug resistance and synergism, deciphered the structural basis for antibiotic selectivity. and showed how it plays a key role in clinical usefulness and therapeutic effectiveness, thus paving the way for structure-based drug design.
Stephanie Kwolek
Stephanie Louise Kwolek was a Polish-American chemist who is known for inventing Kevlar. Her career at the DuPont company spanned more than 40 years. She discovered the first of a family of synthetic fibers of exceptional strength and stiffness: poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide.
Kára McCullough Temple
Kára McCullough Temple attended the HBCU South Carolina State University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with a concentration in radiochemistry. After graduation Temple worked as an emergency preparedness specialist in the United State’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response.
Marie Maynard Daly
Marie Maynard Daly was an American biochemist whose research helped advance the fields of molecular biology, cell metabolism, and cardiovascular disease. Daly was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree in chemistry in the United States.
Zhenan Bao
Zhenan Bao is a chemical engineer. She serves as K. K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, with courtesy appointments in Chemistry and Material Science and Engineering. Bao is known for her work on organic field-effect transistors and organic semiconductors, for applications including flexible electronics and electronic skin.
Yamuna Krishnan
Yamuna Krishnan is a professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago. She was earlier a Reader in National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India. Krishnan won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for science and technology, the highest science award in India in the year 2013 in the Chemical Science category.
Jacqueline Barton
Jacqueline K. Barton, is an American chemist. She worked as a professor of chemistry at Hunter College, and at Columbia University before joining the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She currently is the John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry.
Karen L. Wooley
Karen L. Wooley is an American polymer chemist and Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M. Her research focuses on developing novel polymers and nanostructured materials. Wooley was born and raised in Oakridge, Oregon, and received her B.S. in Chemistry from Oregon State University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Polymer/Organic Chemistry from Cornell University in 1993 under the guidance of Jean Fréchet.
Carolyn Bertozzi
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term “bioorthogonal chemistry” for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences.
Tracy Caldwell Dyson
Tracy Caldwell Dyson is an American chemist and NASA astronaut. Caldwell Dyson was a mission specialist on Space Shuttle Endeavour flight STS-118 in August 2007 and part of the Expedition 23 and Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station from April 2010 to September 2010. She has completed three spacewalks, logging more than 22 hours of extravehicular activity.
Reiko Kuroda
Prof Dr Reiko Kuroda, a chemist and a biologist, is a Professor at Chubu University and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, Japan. A L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Laureate, Prof Kuroda is also a member of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council 2021, a Delegate of the G20 Women 20 Summit 2021, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Her doctorate focused on determining the stereochemistry of metal complexes.
Additional women biologists are listed on the Academicinfluence website

Women and Leadership Archives

The Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) collects, preserves, and makes available permanently valuable records of women and women's organizations, which document women's lives, roles, and contributions. It includes a collection of Women in Science.

Mundelein College was a Roman Catholic Women's College founded in 1929. In 1991, Mundelein College became affiliated with Loyola University, but Piper Hall remains a vital hub for Mundelein's history and legacy. Below are photos of Mundelein's Chemistry students from the Women and Leadership Archives. Please contact WLArchives@luc.edu if you have any questions or would like to learn more!

Chemistry Lab, Tanya Butler (1981)

Tanya Butler, a Black chemistry student with short, wavy hair, wears a lab coat and pours liquid from a glass cylinder into a round-bottomed flask.

Chemistry Lab, Marion Baker (1961)

Marion Bahuk, a woman with short light-colored hair, wears a lab coat over a collard shirt. She places a test tube into unknown lab equipment, perhaps an ice bath.

Dorothy Fitzgerald in the Chemistry Lab (1938)

Dorothy Fitzgerald, a white chemistry student with carefully places curls wears dressy clothes. She is holding up a test tube to her eyeline to observe its contents. In front of her is a test tube rack with similarly full test tubes, two flasks with clear liquid, and an assortment of empty glassware.

Photo Credits: Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago. More digitized images are available on the WLA Archives website.

ACSWCC - American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee
Official American Chemical Society committee promoting engagement, advancement, and advocacy for women in chemistry and related professions.
Science History Institute
Women in Chemistry, a TV show and companion film series, celebrates women scientists and entrepreneurs.
Claiming A Seat At The Periodic Table TedTalk
By Clarice Phelps for TEDxNashvilleWomen

Picture a Scientist
Picture a Scientist is a documentary film about the journey of three women scientists – Dr. Nancy Hopkins, Dr. Raychelle Burks, and Dr. Jane Willenbring, who faced some of the most brutal forms of harassment in their respective professions.
Get Help with SARA, Willamette University
Sexual Assault Response Advocates (SARA)
SARA is a network of trained, unbiased peer advocates who provide confidential support, resources, and education to students in the Salem campus community who have experienced sexual or domestic harassment, assault, or violence, directly or indirectly.

African American Women Chemists in the Modern Era by Jeannette E. Brown
Call Number: QD21 .B6925 2018

ISBN: 9780190615178

Publication Date: 2018-10-12

This is the second of two books about African-American female chemists and focuses on contemporary women who have benefited from the Civil Rights Act and are now working as chemists or chemical engineers.
Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black women in STEM by Tonya Bolden
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781419707346

Publication Date: 2020-03-03

Award-winning author Tonya Bolden explores the black women who have changed the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in America. Including groundbreaking computer scientists, doctors, inventors, physicists, pharmacists, mathematicians, aviators, and many more, this book celebrates over 50 women who have shattered the glass ceiling, defied racial discrimination, and pioneered in their fields.
Mom the Chemistry Professor: personal accounts and advice from chemistry professors who are mothers by Kimberly Woznack (Editor); Renee Cole (Editor); Cecilia Marzabadi (Editor); Gail Webster (Editor)
Call Number: QD20 .M64 2014

ISBN: 9783319060439

Publication Date: 2014-06-26

Choosing to become a mother has a profound effect on the career path of women holding academic positions, especially in the physical sciences. Yet many women successfully manage to do both. In this second edition, which is a project of the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) of the American Chemical Society (ACS), 40 inspirational personal accounts describe the challenges and rewards of combining motherhood with an academic career in chemistry.
Ladies in the Laboratory IV: Imperial Russia's women in science, 1800-1900 : a survey of their contributions to research by Mary R. S. Creese; Thomas M. Creese
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781442247413

Publication Date: 2015-03-12

The first volume of Ladies in the Laboratory provided a systematic survey and comparison of the work of nineteenth-century American and British women in scientific research. Companion volumes focused on women scientists from Western Europe and the former British colonial territories of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
The fourth volume provides biographical sketches of more than 120 women, this volume covers individuals whose scientific research encompassed medicine, chemistry, zoology, botany, and paleontology. Many of these women believed that science was the key to social progress, and the great advances in scientific research-work in which Russians had leading roles-made scientific training especially attractive.
Women in Their Element: selected women's contributions to the periodic system by Annette Lykknes (Editor); Brigitte Van Tiggelen (Editor)
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9789811206283

Publication Date: 2019-08-28

This book offers an original viewpoint on the history of the Periodic Table of Elements: a collective volume with short illustrated papers on women and their contribution to the building and the understanding of the Periodic Table and of the elements themselves.
Dorothy Hodgkin: a life by Georgina Ferry
Call Number: QD903.6.H63 F47 2000

ISBN: 9780879695903

Publication Date: 2000-08-01

This book examines the life of Dorthy Hodgkins and her impact on chemistry and society. 'Nobody could be indifferent to the search for the truth about proteins': Proteins and pregnancy, 1938-1939 -- 'All this penicillin racket you know ... ': War and penicillin, 1939-1945 -- 'The molecule that appears is very beautifully composed': America, Russia and Vitamin B, 1946-1960
Marie Curie: A Life by Susan Quinn
Call Number: QD22.C8 Q56 1995

ISBN: 9780671675424

Publication Date: 1995-03-09

Through access to Marie Curie's journal, closed to researchers until 1990, we hear in her own words of the intimacy and joy of her marriage to Pierre Curie and the depth of her despair at his premature death.
Successful Women in Chemistry: corporate America's contribution to science by Amber S. Hinkle (Editor); Jody A. Kocsis (Editor)
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9780841239128

Publication Date: 2005-07-28

The goal of this book is to create a resource where women can find a role model, someone with whom they can relate. Profiling women with a wide diversity of experiences and career opportunities allows the reader to find a common connection. Some of the key careers include technical directors, eminent scientists, business managers, patent attorneys, bench chemists, entrepreneurs, human resource directors, and journalists.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Call Number: Popular Reading PS3607.A756 L47 2022

ISBN: 9780385547345

Publication Date: 2022-04-05

Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America's most beloved TV cooking show.
Headstrong: 52 women who changed science-- and the world by Rachel Swaby
Call Number: Q130 .S93 2015

ISBN: 9780553446791

Publication Date: 2015-04-07

Covering Nobel Prize winners and major innovators, as well as lesser-known but hugely significant scientists who influence our every day, Rachel Swaby's vibrant profiles span centuries of courageous thinkers and illustrate how each one's ideas developed, from their first moment of scientific engagement through the research and discovery for which they're best known. This fascinating tour reveals 52 women at their best--while encouraging and inspiring a new generation of girls to put on their lab coats.
Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio; Lauren F. Klein
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9780262044004

Publication Date: 2020-03-17

Today, data science is a form of power. It has been used to expose injustice, improve health outcomes, and topple governments. But it has also been used to discriminate, police, and surveil. This potential for good, on the one hand, and harm, on the other, makes it essential to ask- Data science by whom? Data science for whom? Data science with whose interests in mind?
Ten Women Who Changed Science and the World by Catherine Whitlock; Rohdri Evans
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781635766103

Publication Date: 2019-06-11

Ten Women Who Changed Science tells the moving stories of the physicists, biologists, chemists, astronomers and doctors who helped to shape our world with their extraordinary breakthroughs and inventions, and outlines their remarkable achievements. These scientists overcame significant obstacles, often simply because they were women their science and their lives were driven by personal tragedies and shaped by seismic world events.

(Ebook) Women in Supramolecular Chemistry: Collectively Crafting the Rhythms of Our Work and Lives in STEM by Jennifer Leigh; Anna Slater; Jennifer Hiscock; Larissa K.S. von Krbek; Nathalie Busschaert; Cally Haynes; Anna McConnell; Emily Draper; Marion Kieffer; Kristin Hutchins; Davita Watkins; Claudia Caltagirone
ISBN: 1447365356

Publication Date: 2022-06-01

Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) disciplines face a gender gap that has been exacerbated during COVID-19. Drawing on research carried out by the Women in Supramolecular Chemistry (WISC) network, this essential book sets out the extent to which women working in STEM face inequality and discrimination.
(Ebook) African American Women Chemists by Jeannette Brown
ISBN: 9780199742882

Publication Date: 2011-12-14

In this book, Jeannette Brown, an African American woman chemist herself, will present a wide-ranging historical introduction to the relatively new presence of African American women in the field of chemistry. It focuses on the early pioneers--women chemists from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Act.
(Ebook) Women in Bioorganic Chemistry by Cardona, Francesca; Parmeggiani, Camilla; Matassini, Camilla
ISBN: 3036549897

Publication Date: 2022

In order to embrace gender equality, recognize the career progression of women, and to celebrate the achievements of women in the field of bioorganic chemistry, we present contributions both from highly renowned female scientists and young female researchers who are in the early stages of their careers.
(Ebook) The Madame Curie Complex: the hidden history of women in science by Julie Des Jardins
ISBN: 9781282746824

Publication Date: 2010-01-01

The historian and author of Lillian Gilbreth examines the "Great Man" myth of science with profiles of women scientists from Marie Curie to Jane Goodall. Why is science still considered to be predominantly male profession? In The Madame Curie Complex, Julie Des Jardin dismantles the myth of the lone male genius, reframing the history of science with revelations about women's substantial contributions to the field.
(Ebook) Removing Barriers: women in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by Jill M. Bystydzienski (Editor); Sharon R. Bird (Editor)
ISBN: 0253111730

Publication Date: 2006-03-20

This examining reasons for the persistence of barriers that block the full participation and advancement of underrepresented groups in the sciences and addressing how academic departments and universities can remedy the situation, is particularly timely. It shows positive examples of institutions and departments that have been transformed by the inclusion of women and recommends a set of best practices for continuing growth in positive directions.

Women in Chemistry Image

Image source from the Celebrating Women in Chemistry article below. Illustrations by Wong Jeng Teng Gwendolyn (left), Pang Si Xian (middle), and Nicole Au Jun Wen (right).

Celebrating Women in Chemistry (Chemistry– An Asian Journal)
This special collection of Chemistry – An Asian Journal features contributions made by female scientists working in the field of chemistry.
Gender Gap in Chemistry, Still?!
The purpose of this study is to investigate differences between women and men in chemistry, as reflected in their responses to a global gender gap survey.
Empowering Voices: Inspiring Women in Medicinal Chemistry
In this editorial, the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Division (MEDI are featuring female medicinal chemistry scientists to provide role models, encouragement, and inspiration to others.
“Dear future woman of STEM”: letters of advice from women in STEM
In the current study, undergraduate women in STEM fields (N = 89) wrote letters to younger women in STEM about their experiences.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded 117 times to 200 Nobel Laureates between 1901 to present. The recipients below are women who have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For more information, visit the official Nobel Prizes in Chemistry page or the Female Laureates page on Wikipedia.

2022 - Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless
“for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”
2020 - Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna
“for the development of a method for genome editing”
2018 - Frances H. Arnold ; George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter
“for the directed evolution of enzymes” ; “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”
2009 - Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath
“for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”
1964 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
“for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”
1935 - Frédéric Joliot and Irène Joliot-Curie
“in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements”
1911 - Marie Curie
“in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element”

Chemistry

Women in Chemistry

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