List of female scientists in the 21st century facts for kids

This article celebrates amazing women scientists from around the world who are making big discoveries in the 21st century. These women are leaders in many different fields, from studying outer space to understanding tiny cells in our bodies. They are helping us learn more about the world and solve important problems.

Inspiring Scientists from Around the World

Scientists from Albania

• Mimoza Hafizi (born 1962), a physicist from Albania.
• Laura Mersini-Houghton, a theoretical physicist who studies the universe.

Scientists from Argentina

• Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini (born 1944), a paleontologist and zoologist. She studies ancient life and animals.
• Constanza Ceruti (born 1973), an archaeologist and anthropologist. She explores ancient cultures and human history.
• Rachel Chan (graduated 1988), led a team that created seeds more resistant to drought in Argentina.

Scientists from Australia

• Katherine Belov (born 1973), a geneticist who researches cancer in Tasmanian devils.
• Suzanne Cory (born 1942), a molecular biologist. She studies life at a very small, molecular level.
• Gisela Kaplan, an expert in birds and primates. She studies how animals think and communicate.
• Naomi McClure-Griffiths (born 1975), an astrophysicist. She discovered a new arm of our Milky Way galaxy!
• Jessica Melbourne-Thomas (born 1981), a marine ecologist. She works with the Australian Antarctic Division.
• Sue O'Connor, an archaeologist who found the world's oldest fish hooks.
• Lesley J Rogers (born 1943), an ethologist and neuroscientist. She studies animal behavior and brains.
• Moninya Roughan (born 1974), an oceanographer. She studies how ocean currents move and warm up.
• Una M. Ryan (born 1966), created a DNA test to find a tiny parasite called Cryptosporidium.
• Rachel Webster (born 1951), an astrophysicist and teacher.

Scientists from Austria

• Elisabeth Binder (graduated 1995), a neuroscientist who studies anxiety disorders.
• Claire F. Gmachl (born 1967), an electrical engineer and teacher.
• Lisa Kaltenegger (born 1977), an astronomer and teacher.

Scientists from Belgium

• Ingrid Daubechies (born 1954), a physicist and mathematician.
• Véronique Dehant (born 1959), a geodesist and geophysicist. She studies Earth's shape and gravity.
• Véronique Gouverneur (born 1964), a chemist and teacher. She specializes in organic fluorine compounds.
• Yaël Nazé (born 1976), an astrophysicist who studies very large stars.

Scientists from Bolivia

• Kathrin Barboza Marquez (born 1983), a biologist who specializes in bat research.

Scientists from Brazil

• Livia Eberlin, an analytical chemist. She helped invent the MassSpec pen, a tool for quick chemical analysis.
• Fátima Ferreira (born 1959), a biologist and physician. She is an expert in molecular allergology.
• Mayana Zatz (born 1947), a molecular biologist and geneticist.

Scientists from Canada

• Roberta Bondar (born 1945), a neurologist and astronaut. She was the first Canadian woman in space!
• Kirsten Bos, a physical anthropologist. She studies ancient diseases using molecular methods.
• Juliet Daniel (active from 2001), focuses on cancer biology research.
• Laura Ferrarese, an astronomer.
• Sheena Josselyn, a neuroscientist.
• Julia Levy (born 1934), a microbiologist and immunologist.
• Sara Seager (born 1971), an astronomer and planetary scientist. She searches for planets outside our solar system.
• Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist.

Scientists from Chile

• Ligia Gargallo, a chemist and teacher.
• Paula Jofré (born 1982), an astronomer and astrophysicist.
• María Teresa Ruiz, (born 1946) an astronomer.

Scientists from China

• Margaret Chan (born 1947), a health specialist from Hong Kong. She was the director-general of the World Health Organization.
• Lü Zhi (born 1965), an expert in giant pandas and conservation.
• Tu Youyou (born 1930), a pharmaceutical chemist. She discovered a new treatment for malaria.

Scientists from Colombia

• Diana Marcela Bolaños Rodriguez (born 1981), a marine biologist. She studies flatworms and how their stem cells regenerate.
• Ana Maria Rey (born 1976/1977), a theoretical physicist.

Scientists from Croatia

• Nina Marković, a physicist and professor.

Scientists from Czech Republic

• Eva Syková (born 1944), a neuroscientist. She researches spinal cord injuries.

Scientists from Denmark

• Anja Cetti Andersen (born 1965), an astronomer and astrophysicist.
• Lene Hau (born 1959), a physicist.

Scientists from Dominican Republic

• Idelisa Bonnelly (1931–2022), a marine biologist. She created the first sanctuary for humpback whales in the North Atlantic.

Scientists from Finland

• Tuija I. Pulkkinen (born 1962), a space scientist.

Scientists from France

• Anne Dejean-Assémat (born 1957), a biologist who researches liver cancer.
• Hélène Bergès (born 1966), a plant geneticist. She directs the Plant Genomic Resources Center.
• Catherine Feuillet (born 1965), a molecular biologist. She was the first to map the wheat chromosome 3B.
• Dominique Langevin (born 1947), a physical chemist.

Scientists from Germany

• Andrea Ablasser (born 1983), an immunologist.
• Katrin Amunts (born 1962), a neuroscientist. She is involved in mapping the human brain.
• Ulrike Beisiegel (born 1952), a biochemist. She researches liver fats.
• Sibylle Günter (born 1964), a theoretical physicist. She studies tokamak plasmas, which are used in fusion energy research.
• Ilme Schlichting (born 1960), a biophysicist.

Scientists from Greece

• Lydia Kravraki, a computer scientist and professor.

Scientists from Hungary

• Katalin Balázsi (born 1978), a material scientist. She researches nanomaterials and ceramics.

Scientists from India

• Joyanti Chutia (born 1948), a physicist.
• Paramjit Khurana (born 1956), a biologist. She specializes in plant biotechnology.
• Shobhana Narasimhan (graduated 1983), a physicist. She is a professor of theoretical sciences.
• Tu Youyou (born 1930), a pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist.

Scientists from Indonesia

• Adi Utarini (born 1965), a public health researcher. She works on controlling dengue fever.
• Rose Amal (born 1965), a chemical engineer.
• Tri Mumpuni (born 1964), an independent researcher and inventor. She developed micro-hydropower.

Scientists from Iran

• Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–2017), a mathematician and professor at Stanford University.
• Pardis C. Sabeti (born 1975), a computational biologist and geneticist.
• Anousheh Ansari (born 1966), an engineer and co-founder of Prodea Systems.

Scientists from Iraq

• Lihadh Al-Gazali (born 1950), a geneticist. She created a registry for birth defects in the United Arab Emirates.

Scientists from Israel

• Ada Yonath (born 1939), a crystallographer. She studies the structure of crystals.

Scientists from Italy

• Maria Abbracchio (born 1956), a pharmacologist. She works with purinergic receptors.
• Elisa Oricchio (born 1979), discovered that a protein called EphA7 helps fight follicular lymphoma.

Scientists from Luxembourg

• Christiane Linster (born 1962), a behavioral neuroscientist.

Scientists from Madagascar

• Julie Hanta Razafimanahaka, a conservation biologist.

Scientists from Morocco

• Merieme Chadid (born 1969), an astronomer, explorer, and astrophysicist.
• Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli (born 1954), known for her work proving the existence of the Higgs Boson particle.

Scientists from Netherlands

• Corinne Hofman (born 1959), an archaeologist.

Scientists from New Zealand

• Margaret Brimble (born 1961), a chemist. She researches toxins found in shellfish.

Scientists from Nigeria

• Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi, an environmental biochemist. She won an L'Oréal-UNESCO award in 2013.
• Omowunmi Sadik (born 1964), a chemist and teacher.
• Margaret Adebisi Sowunmi (born 1939), a botanist and environmental archaeologist.

Scientists from Norway

• Tine Jensen (born 1957), a psychologist. She specializes in psychological trauma.

Scientists from Pakistan

• Sara Gill, a physician.

Scientists from Portugal

• Mónica Bettencourt-Dias (born 1974), a biochemist and microbiologist.
• Maria Manuel Mota (born 1971), a malariologist. She studies malaria.

Scientists from Russia

• Eugenia Kumacheva, a chemist. She has been teaching in Canada since 1995.

Scientists from Saudi Arabia

• Samira Islam (active since 1971), a pharmacologist and teacher.

Scientists from Singapore

• Gloria Lim (born 1930), a mycologist. She was the first woman Dean of the University of Singapore.

Scientists from South Africa

• Renée Hložek (born 1983), a cosmologist and professor of physics.
• Valerie Mizrahi (born 1958), a molecular biologist.
• Tebello Nyokong (born 1951), a chemist and cancer researcher.
• Jennifer Thomson (born 1947), a microbiologist.

Scientists from Spain

• Margarita Salas (1938–2019), a biochemist and author.
• Carme Torras (born 1956), a computer scientist. She specializes in robotics.

Scientists from South Korea

• Ahn In-Young, an Antarctic researcher and benthic ecologist.
• Kim V. Narry (born 1969), a biochemist and microbiologist.
• Yu Myeong-Hee (born 1954), a microbiologist.

Scientists from Switzerland

• Silvia Arber (born 1968), a neuroscientist.
• Anita Studer (born 1957), an ornithologist and environmentalist.

Scientists from Taiwan

• Chung-Pei Ma (born 1966), an astrophysicist.

Scientists from Tanzania

• Agness Gidna, a paleontologist.

Scientists from Trinidad and Tobago

• Michelle Antoine, a neuroscientist.

Scientists from Turkey

• Ayşe Erzan (born 1949), a theoretical physicist.

Scientists from Ukraine

• Maryna Viazovska (born 1984), a mathematician. She is known for her work in sphere packing.

Scientists from the United Kingdom

• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (born 1943), an astrophysicist. She discovered radio pulsars, which are like cosmic lighthouses.
• Sue Black (born 1962), a computer scientist.
• Jenny Clack (1947–2020), a paleontologist. She was an expert on how fish evolved into land animals.
• Jane Goodall (born 1934), a primatologist and anthropologist. She is famous for her studies of chimpanzees.
• Monica Grady (born 1958), a space scientist.
• Emily Grossman (born 1978), a cancer researcher and science popularizer.
• Rachel McKendry (born 1973), a chemist. She is a pioneer in digital public health.
• Jane E. Parker (born 1960), a botanist. She researches how plants fight off diseases.
• Emma Parmee, a chemist. She helped discover and develop the drug sitagliptin.
• Margaret Stanley, a virologist. She was awarded the OBE in 2004.
• Jean Thomas (born 1942), a biochemist and teacher.
• Karen Vousden (born 1957), a medical researcher.

Scientists from the United States

Astronomers and Space Scientists

• Carolyn Porco (born 1953), a planetary scientist.
• Jill Tarter (born 1944), an astronomer.
• Joy Crisp (graduated 1979), a planetary scientist.
• Linda Spilker (born 1955), a planetary scientist.
• Maria Zuber (born 1958), a planetary scientist.
• Sandra Faber (born 1944), a professor of astronomy.
• Pamela Gay (born 1973), an astronomer.

Other Fields of Study

• Alice Alldredge (born 1949), an oceanographer. She discovered Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) in the ocean.
• Lera Boroditsky (born c.1976), a cognitive scientist. She studies how language affects our thoughts.
• Stephanie Burns (born 1955), an organosilicon chemist and business executive.
• Sylvia Earle (born 1935), a marine biologist and explorer. She is known for her deep-sea research.
• Deborah Estrin (born 1959), a computer scientist and teacher.
• Katherine Freese (born 1957), a theoretical astrophysicist and professor of physics.
• Gail Hanson (born 1947), an experimental particle physicist and teacher.
• Gabriele C. Hegerl (born 1962), a climatologist. She researches climate change.
• Shirley Ann Jackson (born 1946), a nuclear physicist.
• Alice K. Jacobs, a cardiologist. She was president of the American Heart Association in 2004.
• Karen C. Johnson (born 1955), a physician and clinical trials specialist.
• Rosemary Joyce (born 1956), an archaeologist. She uncovered chocolate's ancient history.
• Dina Katabi (born 1970), a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
• Ann Kiessling (born 1942), a reproductive biologist and teacher.
• Emily Levesque (born 1984), an astrophysicist.
• Mariangela Lisanti (born 1983), a theoretical physicist.
• Anna Suk-Fong Lok, a hepatologist. She wrote guidelines for liver disease.
• Catherine A. Lozupone (born 1975), a microbiologist. She developed the UniFrac algorithm for studying microbiomes.
• Sally McBrearty, a palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist.
• Jill Mikucki (graduated 1996), a microbiologist and Antarctic researcher.
• Catherine J. Murphy (born 1964), a chemist.
• Anna Nagurney (active since 1996), a mathematician. She specializes in operations management.
• Eva J. Pell (born 1948), a biologist and plant pathologist.
• Helen Quinn (born 1943), a particle physicist.
• Lisa Randall (born 1962), a particle physicist and teacher.
• Rebecca Richards-Kortum (born 1964), a bioengineer and professor.
• Geraldine L. Richmond (born 1953), a physical chemist and professor.
• Linda Saif (graduated 1969), a microbial scientist. She researches viruses and immunity.
• Christine Siddoway (born 1961), an Antarctic geologist.
• Caroline M. Solomon, a deaf oceanographer.
• Sharon Stocker, known for discovering the Griffin Warrior Tomb.
• Sabrina Thompson (born 1985), an aerospace engineer. She founded the fashion brand Girl in Space Club.
• Krystal Tsosie, a geneticist and bioethicist. She promotes Indigenous data sovereignty.
• Kay Tye (born c. 1981), a neuroscientist.
• Lydia Villa-Komaroff (born 1947), a molecular biologist.
• Elisabeth Vrba (born 1942), a paleontologist.
• Nora Volkow (born 1956), a psychiatrist.
• Christina Warinner, an anthropologist. She researches ancient microbiomes.
• Phyllis Wise (graduated 1967), a biologist and teacher.
• Kakani Katija Young (born 1983), a bioengineer.

Scientists from Venezuela

• Mayly Sánchez (born 1972), an astrophysicist. She studies neutrinos and won the US PECASE Prize in 2011.

Scientists from Vietnam

• Phạm Thị Trân Châu (born 1938), a biochemist.
• Hoang Thi Than (born 1944), a geological engineer and archaeologist.

Scientists from Zambia

• Nsofwa Petronella Sampa, a psychological counselor and HIV activist.

Scientists from Zimbabwe

• Idah Sithole-Niang (born 1957), a biochemist. She focuses on cowpea production and disease.

See also

• 21st-century women scientists
• Lists of women scientists
• Women scientists by century