11 Notable Woman Scientists Who Have Won Nobel Prizes

Throughout history, women have made lasting impacts in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Often though, they've been overlooked in history books or overshadowed by their male counterparts. 

Still, others have had their work recognized in meaningful ways. Perhaps one of the most prestigious being the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize isn't a single prize, but five prizes that are awarded to those who "during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” 

The first prizes were awarded in 1901. Each recipient also called a "laureate" received a medal, diploma, and a monetary award. They're awarded in the field of Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences. 

As of December 2020, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded 603 times to 962 people and 25 organizations. Let's take a look at a few notable ones of those Nobel laureates – 11 women in STEM whose work earned them the award. 

1. Marie Sklodowska Curie

Category: Physics, Chemistry

Year Awarded: 1903, 1911

Marie Curie's work garnered attention across the globe during the turn of the 20th century. Her contributions in the fields of both physics and chemistry make her one of the most famous scientists to have ever existed. A Polish and naturalized French physicist and chemist, her work in radioactivity still has an impact to this day. 

In 1903, Curie became the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in "recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

In 1911 she was honored for a second time with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This award was "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."

To this day, she is the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. 

2. Irene Curie

Category: Chemistry

Year Awarded: 1935

Irene Curie made it her mission to build off of her mother’s work, continuing research into the emerging world of radioactivity. In her relentless research, Curie’s discovery of artificial radioactivity earned her a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.

Irene’s work on radioactive isotopes has provided the basis for many biomedical research and cancer treatments today.    

3. Gerty Theresa Cori

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 1947

Born in Prague, Gerty Theresa Cori was a biochemist who became the third woman (and the first American woman) to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 

The prize was awarded to her for her integral role in the discovery of "the Cori Cycle" – the process by which lactic acid forms when you use your muscles and is then converted into glycogen in the liver. This work laid the framework for our current understanding of diabetes.

4. Maria Goeppert Mayer

Category: Physics

Year Awarded: 1963

German physicist and mathematician Maria Mayer made multiple contributions to the field of physics. Nevertheless, her proposed idea of the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus is what eventually earned her a Nobel Prize in 1963. Mayer also worked on isotope separation for the atomic bomb project.

5. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

Category: Chemistry

Year Awarded: 1964

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin’s work in chemistry has been well received in the arena of medicine. Born in 1910, Hodgkin is best known for her research in the development of biochemical compounds.

She was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12, concluding that these compounds were crucial to fighting anemia. She is the only British woman scientist to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in any of the three sciences it recognizes. 

Hodgkin also helped advance the X-ray crystallography technique, which helps scientists understand the three-dimensional structures of biochemical compounds

6. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 1977

Rosalyn Yalow was an American medical physicist who became the sixth woman to win the Nobel Prize in a scientific field. She was also the second woman in the world to win in the physiology or medicine category.

She was honored for her role in devising the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique. This extremely sensitive technique uses radioactive isotopes to measure the concentrations of hormones, viruses, vitamins, enzymes, and drugs in body tissue. This allows blood donors to be screened for various diseases. 

7. Barbara McClintock

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 1983

Barbara McClintock was an American scientist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983. She was the first woman to win that prize unshared. She received the award for discovering mobile genetic elements – essentially, discovering that some genes can be mobile. 

McClintock challenged preconceived notions of what genes were capable of through her research. Building off of these insights, her studies on the chromosomes in corn led to the discovery of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a potential cure for African sleeping sickness.

8. Rita Levi-Montalcini

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 1986

An Italian neurophysiologist, Rita Levi-Montalcini was equally admired for her work and fearless, charismatic personality. Her 1954 discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF) earned her the Nobel Prize in 1986. NGF is a protein that causes developing cells to grow by stimulating surrounding nerve tissue, playing a role in degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease.

9. Gertrude Elion

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 1988

In 1991, Gertrude Elion became the first woman to be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Her research led to the development of drugs that combat major diseases like Malaria, AIDS, and leukemia. Elion also developed Imuran, a drug that blocks the rejection of any foreign tissues. 

In 1988, Elion received the Nobel Prize for discoveries of "important new principles in drug treatment." She was the only woman honored with a Nobel Prize that year.

10. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 1995

German biologist, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard earned a Nobel Prize in 1995. The experiments that earned her the prize aimed to identify genes involved in the development of fruit fly embryos. 

The findings lead to important realizations about evolution and helped to explain congenital malformations in humans.

11. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

Category: Physiology or Medicine

Year Awarded: 2008

French Virologist, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi’s work helped identify a disease that affects millions of people around the world: HIV. In 1983, Françoise discovered a retrovirus in patients with swollen lymph glands that attacked lymphocytes; blood cells that are very important to the body's immune system. This retrovirus would be later named Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV the cause of AIDS. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery in 2008.

Women worth mentioning

Again, there are so many women who have been awarded the Nobel Prize over the years, and it's impossible to recognize them all here. Be sure to take a moment to appreciate the list of all 57. 

You'll learn about Donna Strickland, the optical physicist who revolutionized corrective eye surgeries; Linda B. Buck, a biologist who shed light on how our sense of smell really works; Ada E. Yonath, who became the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize; and many, many more. 

We can't wait to see the number of women on this list grow.