Research Guides: Voices In STEM: WOMEN, BIPOC, LGBTQ+: Women in Physics & Astron.

Women in Physics & Astronomy

Hidden Figures: the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Call Number: QA27.5 .L44 2016

ISBN: 9780062363596

Publication Date: 2016-09-06

Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation
Women in the History of Quantum Physics: beyond Knabenphysik by Patrick Charbonneau (Editor); Michelle Frank (Editor); Margriet van der Heijden (Editor); Daniela Monaldi (Editor)
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781009535830

Publication Date: 2025-06-19

Capturing the stories of sixteen women who made significant contributions to the development of quantum physics, this anthology highlights how, from the very beginning, women played a notable role in shaping one of the most fascinating and profound scientific fields of our time.
The Glass Universe: how the ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the measure of the stars by Dava Sobel
Call Number: QB34.5 .S63 2016

ISBN: 9780670016952

Publication Date: 2016-12-06

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges -- Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith.
Out of the Shadows: contributions of twentieth-century women to physics by Nina Byers (Editor); Gary Williams (Editor)
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9780521821971

Publication Date: 2006-08-17

This provides an accurate and authoritative description of the women who made original and important contributions to physics in the twentieth century, documenting their major discoveries and putting their work into its historical context. Each chapter concentrates on a different woman, and is written by a physicist with considerable experience in their field.
Overnight Code: the life of Raye Montague, the woman who revolutionized naval engineering by Paige Bowers; David Montague
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781641602594

Publication Date: 2021-01-12

Where some saw roadblocks, Montague only saw hurdles that needed to be overcome. Her mindset helped her become the first person to draft a Naval ship design by computer, using a program she worked late nights to debug. She did this as a single mother during the height of the Cold War.
The Radium Girls: the dark story of America's shining women by Kate Moore
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781492650959

Publication Date: 2018-03-06

As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" were considered the luckiest alive--until they began to fall mysteriously ill.
Rise of the Rocket Girls: the women who propelled us, from missiles to the moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt
Call Number: TL862.J48 H65 2016

ISBN: 9780316338929

Publication Date: 2016-04-05

In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion by Ann N. Middlebrook; Margaret A. Tolbert
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781891389108

Publication Date: 2000-03-01

Examines the phenomenon of ozone loss and considers its chemistry, causes, and prevention.
Making Waves: the story of Ruby Payne-Scott : Australian pioneer radio astronomer by W. M. Goss
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9783642357510

Publication Date: 2013-07-29

As the first female radio astronomer and one of the first people in the world to consider radio astronomy, she made classic contributions to solar radio physics. She also played a major role in the design of the Australian government's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research radars, which were in turn of vital importance in the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II.
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.
Their Day in the Sun: women of the Manhattan Project by Ruth Howes
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 1566397197

Publication Date: 1999-10-22

The history of the Manhattan Project, America's extremely secretive effort during World War II to develop the atomic bomb, is almost always presented in light of the male scientists who made the bomb. But, in fact, a large number of women were also involved in the project, although until now their contributions have largely been ignored.
The Sky Is for Everyone: women astronomers in their own words by Virginia Trimble (Editor); David A. Weintraub (Editor)
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9780691253916

Publication Date: 2023-10-31

The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy.
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.
Women in Space: 23 stories of first flights, scientific missions, and gravity-breaking adventures by Karen Bush Gibson
Call Number: Available through Summit

ISBN: 9781613748442

Publication Date: 2014-02-01

When Valentina Tereshkova blasted off aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, she became the first woman to rocket into space. It would be 19 years before another woman got a chance--cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982--followed by American astronaut Sally Ride a year later.

(Ebook) The Women of the Moon: tales of science, love, sorrow, and courage by Daniel R. Altschuler; Fernando J. Ballesteros
ISBN: 0198844417

Publication Date: 2019-08-01

Of the 1586 lunar craters that have been named to honor scientists and philosophers, only 28 honor a woman. Who were these women? This book recounts their exemplary lives and inspiring achievements. Along the way, the book explains some of the science, and provides interesting facts about the Moon.
(Ebook) Meeting the Challenge: top women in science by Magdolna Hargittai
ISBN: 9780197574751

Publication Date: 2023-04-14

Astronomy was the earliest science in which women's participation has been recorded. Enheduanna, the Mezopotanian priestess around 2350 BCE monitored the stars and Hypathia in the fourth century is especially famous. Women astronomers such as Sophia Brahe, Maria Cunitz, Elisabetha Hevelius, Maria Margaretha Kirch, and Caroline Herschel often worked alongside family members, husbands or brothers. The next generations were more independent.
(Ebook) The Mathematics of Sex: how biology and society conspire to limit talented women and girls by Stephen J. Ceci; Wendy M. Williams
ISBN: 0199736782

Publication Date: 2009-01-01

Even though women consistently receive better grades in math and science, men excel on math aptitude tests and are greatly overrepresented in the so-called hard sciences. This book explores why males are overrepresented in mathematically intensive professions such as physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering.

African American Women in Physics (AAWIP)
This site honors the women who paved the way, to inspire future physicists, and promotes diversity in Physics and other STEM fields.
American Physical Society – Women in Physics (APS WiP)
A branch of the APS, this community connects female physicists through mentoring programs, networking events, awards, and conferences. APS WiP promotes career development and inclusion across undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels.
National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP)
The National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) is the largest and most recognizable organization devoted to the growth, development, and advancement of the African-American physics community.
National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP)
The purpose of this society is to promote the professional well-being and recognize the accomplishments of Hispanic physicists, in addition to increasing opportunities for Hispanics in physics, and to increase the number of practicing Hispanic physicists.
Women in Physics (IUPAP)
Created in 1999 as a means to improve the situation for women in physics, WiP hosts an International Conference on Women in Physics (ICWIP) every three years. Attendees around the world to report on the situation of women in physics in their country, share good practice, and improve social support networks.

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 119 times to 230 Nobel Laureates between 1901 to present. The recipients below are women who have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. For more information, visit the official Nobel Prizes in Physics webpage or the Female Laureates page on Wikipedia.

2023 - Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier
“for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”
2020 - Roger Penrose ; Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez
“for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity” ; “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy”
2018 - Arthur Ashkin ; Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland
“for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics” ; “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems” ; “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”
1963 - Maria Goeppert Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen ; Eugene Wigner
“for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure” ; “for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles”
1903 - Pierre Curie and Marie Curie ; Henri Becquerel
“in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel” ; “in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity”

Other women physicists that were nominated to the Nobel Prize in Physics but did not receive it, include:

Lise Meitner, nominated 26 times
Chien-Shiung Wu, nominated 9 times
Marietta Blau, nominated 4 times
Hertha Wambacher, nominated once
Margaret Burbidge, nominated once
Janine Connes, nominated once
Phyllis S. Freier, nominated once
Isabella Karle, nominated once

Clarivate Citation Laureates in Physics

2008 Vera Rubin † "for her pioneering research indicating the existence of dark matter in the universe."
2012 Lene Hau "for the experimental demonstration of electromagnetically induced transparency 'slow light' (with Stephen E. Harris)."
2015 Deborah S. Jin † "for pioneering research on atomic gases at ultra-cold temperatures and the creation of the first fermionic condensate."
2018 Sandra Faber "for pioneering methods to determine the age, size and distance of galaxies and for other contributions to cosmology."
2023 Sharon Glotzer "for demonstrating the role of entropy in the self-assembly of matter and for introducing strategies to control the assembly process to engineer new materials."
2025 Ewine van Dishoeck "for pioneering contributions to astrochemistry revealing interstellar molecular clouds and their role in star and planet formation" and Ingrid Daubechies "for advancing wavelet theory, a revolution in mathematics and physics with practical applications including image processing"

Wolf Prize

1978 Chien-Shiung Wu, "for her explorations of the weak interaction, helping establish the precise form and the non-conservation of parity for this natural force."
2022 Anne L'Huillier, "for pioneering contributions to ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics".

Breakthrough Prize

2018 WMAP Probe team, 27 listed members, including Hiranya Peiris, Licia Verde, Janet L. Weiland and Joanna Dunkley for "For detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies."
2018 Special recognition to Jocelyn Bell Burnell for "For fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community."

Prizes only for female physicists

L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards, awarded bi-annually to one laureate per continent for outstanding contributions to the physical sciences.
Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of the American Physical Society awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to physics research.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in UK, for contributions to physics by a very early career physicist.
Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy awarded annually for outstanding contributions to astronomy within five years of earning a doctorate degree.

Physical Models and Theories

Birge–Sponer method, in molecular physics, partially named after Hertha Sponer.
Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou problem in chaos theory, partially named after Mary Tsingou.
Frenkel–Kontorova model, in non-linear physics, partially named after Tatiana Kontorova [ru].
Hopfield model, in atmospheric physics, is named after Helen Hopfield.
Kovalevskaya top in rotational dynamics, named after Sofya Kovalevskaya.
Pasterski–Strominger–Zhiboedov triangle in quantum gravity, is partially named after Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski.
Peccei–Quinn theory in particle physics, partially named after Helen Quinn.
Pöschl–Teller potential in quantum mechanics, partially named after Herta Pöschl.
Randall–Sundrum model in theoretical physics, partially named after Lisa Randall.
Falkner–Skan boundary layer in fluid mechanics, partially named after Sylvia Skan
Van Vleck–Pauli–Morette determinant in quantum mechanics, partially named after Cécile DeWitt-Morette.

Timeline of Important Events with Women in Physics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_physics

Source: Wikipedia, Women in Physics

Voices In STEM: WOMEN, BIPOC, LGBTQ+

Women in Physics & Astronomy

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