2023
Anne L'Huillier "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter."[7]
Marie Curie was the first woman to receive the prize in 1903 and shared 1/2 of the prize with her husband
Pierre Curie for their joint work on
radioactivity, discovered by Henri Becquerel who got the other half of the prize. Marie Curie was the first woman to also receive the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, making her the first person to win two Nobel prizes and, as of 2023, the only person to be awarded two Nobel prizes in two different scientific categories.[8]
Maria Goeppert Mayer became the second woman to win the prize in 1963, for the theoretical development of the
nuclear shell model, a half of the prize shared with
J. Hans D. Jensen (the other half given to
Eugene Wigner). Donna Strickland shared half of the prize in 2018 with
Gérard Mourou, for their work in
chirped pulse amplification beginning in the 1980s (the other half given to
Arthur Ashkin). Andrea Ghez was the fourth female Nobel laureate in 2020, she shared one half of the prize with
Reinhard Genzel for the discovery of the supermassive compact object
Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy (the other half given to
Roger Penrose). In 2023, Anne L'Huillier shared the prize in equal parts with
Pierre Agostini and
Ferenc Krausz for their experimental contribution and development of
attosecond physics. L'Huillier is the first female laureate to receive 1/3 of monetary award of the Nobel Prize in Physics (Curie, Goeppert–Mayer, Strickland and Ghez received 1/4).
As of 2024, Connes was still alive and eligible to the prize. Irène Joliot-Curie[10] and Dorothy Hodgkin[11] were also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 and 1964, respectively. Lise Meitner is the female physicist the most nominated, 16 times for Physics and 14 times for Chemistry.[20] About 1.7% of the Nobel nominations in Physics up to 1970 were women.[20]
Several women have been selected as
Clarivate Citation laureates in Physics, which makes an annual list of possible candidates for the Nobel Prize in Physics based on citation statistics, these include:
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."[30]
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."[33]
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."[34]
Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy awarded annually for outstanding contributions to astronomy within five years of earning a doctorate degree.
Topics named after female scientists
Female scientist have sometimes not been recognized in the naming of topics they discovered due to
Matilda effect. Some physics phenomena that are named after female scientists include:
c. 150 BCE:
Aglaonice became the first female astronomer to be recorded in Ancient Greece.[35][36]
c. 355–415 CE: Greek astronomer, mathematician and philosopher,
Hypatia became renowned as a respected academic teacher, editor of
Ptolemy's Almagest astronomical data, and head of her own science academy.[37]
16th century
1572: astronomer
Sophia Brahe assists her older brother
Tycho Brahe finding a new bright object in the night sky, now known as called
SN 1572 (a
supernova).[38] Sophia would help her brother in astronomy throughout his life.
17th century
1668: After separating from her husband, French polymath
Marguerite de la Sablière established a popular
salon in Paris. Scientists and scholars from different countries visited the salon regularly to discuss ideas and share knowledge, and Sablière studied physics, astronomy and natural history with her guests.[39]
1680: French astronomer
Jeanne Dumée published a summary of arguments supporting the
Copernican theory of heliocentrism. She wrote "between the brain of a woman and that of a man there is no difference".[40]
1693–1698: German astronomer and illustrator
Maria Clara Eimmart created more than 350 detailed drawings of the moon phases.[41]
18th century
1732: At the age of 20, Italian physicist
Laura Bassi became the first female member of the
Bologna Academy of Sciences. One month later, she publicly defended her academic theses and received a PhD. Bassi was awarded an honorary position as professor of physics at the
University of Bologna. She was the first female physics professor in the world.[42]
1738: French polymath
Émilie du Châtelet became the first woman to have a paper published by the
Paris Academy, following a contest on the nature of fire.[43]
1740: Du Châtelet publishes Institutions de Physique, or Foundations of Physics, providing a metaphysical basis for
Newtonian physics.[44][45]
1751: 19-year-old Italian physicist
Cristina Roccati received her PhD from the University of Bologna.[46]
1755: Sculptor
Jean-Jacques Caffieri makes a medallion of physicist
Maria Angela Ardinghelli to be hung in
French Academy of Sciences. The academy did not accept female members at the time. Ardinghelli worked as the main correspondent and translator between Paris and Naples in terms of physics discussions.[47]
1856: Amateur scientist
Eunice Newton Foote provides the first demonstration of the warming effect of the sun is greater for air with water vapour than for dry air, and the effect is even greater with carbon dioxide (
greenhouse effect).[51]
1891:
Agnes Pockels, gets help from
Rayleigh to publish her first paper on nature of
surface tension. There she first introduces the concept of the Pockels point and pioneers the field of surface science.[52]
1897: American physicist
Isabelle Stone became the first woman to receive a PhD in physics in the United States. She wrote her dissertation "On the Electrical Resistance of Thin Films" at the
University of Chicago.[54][55]
1900: Physicists Marie Curie and Isabelle Stone attended the first International Congress of Physics in
Paris, France. They were the only two women out of 836 participants.[55]
1906: English physicist, mathematician and engineer
Hertha Ayrton became the first female recipient of the
Hughes Medal from the
Royal Society of London. She received the award for her experimental research on
electric arcs and sand ripples.[65] The first woman to be nominated for the Royal Society and to give a lecture to the Society.[66]
1909: Danish physicist
Kristine Meyer became the first Danish woman to receive a doctorate degree in natural sciences. She wrote her dissertation on the topic of "the development of the temperature concept" within the history of physics.[56]
1910s
1911: Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which she received "[for] 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".[67][68][69] This made her the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes.[8][70]
1912: Astronomer
Henrietta Swan Leavitt studied the bright-dim cycle periods of Cepheid stars, then found a way to calculate the distance from such stars to Earth.[71]
1925: Annie Jump Cannon became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate of science from
Oxford University.[78]
1925: Astrophysicist
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin established that
hydrogen is the most common element in stars, and thus the most abundant element in the universe.[79]
1926: The first application of quantum mechanics to molecular systems was done by
Lucy Mensing. She studied the rotational spectrum of diatomic molecules using the methods of
matrix mechanics.[81]
1934: Olga N. Trapeznikowa and his husband
Lev Shubnikov finish an experiment showing one of the first evidences for the existence of
antiferromagnetism.[83][84]
1949:
Rosemary Brown (later Fowler), a student of
C.F. Powell at the
University of Bristol, discovers the k-meson in what Heisenberg calls "most beautiful" pictures of cosmic ray tracks from the Jungfraujoch (the 'k' track in Brown, R. et al. Nature, 163, 47 (1949). This discovery and the prior finding of a very similar particle in 1947 led to the "τ–θ puzzle", the discovery of parity violation in weak interactions, and hence the Standard Model.
1956: Chinese-American physicist Chien-Shiung Wu conducted a
nuclear physics experiment in collaboration with the Low Temperature Group of the US
National Bureau of Standards.[110] The experiment, becoming known as the Wu experiment, showed that parity could be violated in weak interaction.[111]
1962: French physicist Marguerite Perey became the first female Fellow elected to the
Académie des Sciences.[114]
1963: Maria Goeppert Mayer became the first American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics; she shared the prize with
J. Hans D. Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure” and
Eugene Paul Wigner "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental
symmetry principles".[115][116][117]
1973: American physicist
Anna Coble became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in biophysics, completing her dissertation at
University of Illinois.[126]
1980: Nigerian geophysicist
Deborah Ajakaiye became the first woman in any West African country to be appointed a full professor of physics.[131][132] Over the course of her scientific career, she became the first female Fellow elected to the
Nigerian Academy of Science, and the first female dean of science in Nigeria.[133]
1980:
Mary K. Gaillard produces a report at
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) addressing the fact that just 3% of the staff were women. She called for the elimination of gender discrimination through equality in promotion, maternity leave and full-day child care.[127]
2000: Helen Quinn becomes the first woman to receive the
Dirac Medal of the
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) "pioneering contributions to the quest for a unified theory of quarks and leptons and the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions."[139]
21st century
2000s
2001:
Lene Hau stopped a beam of light completely[140]
Astrophysicists
Hiranya Peiris and
Joanna Dunkley and Italian cosmologist
Licia Verde were among 27 scientists awarded the
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to "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".[153]
Astrophysicist
Jocelyn Bell Burnell received the special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her scientific achievements and “inspiring leadership”, worth $3 million. She donated the entirety of the prize money towards the creation of scholarships to assist women, underrepresented minorities and refugees who are pursuing the study of physics.[154]
For the first time in history, women received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Nobel Prize in Physics in the same year.[157]
Human right activist and physicist
Narges Mohammadi wins the
Andrei Sakharov prize by the
American Physical Society, "for her leadership in campaigning for peace, justice, and the abolition of the
death penalty and for her unwavering efforts to promote the human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people, despite persecution that has forced her to suspend her scientific pursuits and endure lengthy incarceration."[158]
Andrea M. Ghez received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy." She shared half of the prize with
Reinhard Genzel, while the other half was awarded to
Roger Penrose.[162]
Geoscientist
Ingeborg Levin was the first woman to receive the
Alfred Wegener medal from the
European Geosciences Union "for fundamental contributions to our present knowledge and understanding of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including the global carbon cycle."[163]
2022: Anne L’Huillier becomes the second female scientist to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics “for pioneering contributions to ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics”.[165]
2023: Anne l'Huillier receives the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter" shared with
Pierre Agostini and
Ferenc Krausz.
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