Famous Female Scientists...
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell:
Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first female president of the Institute of Physics. She also discovered the first pulsar. She was one of the few girls "allowed" to study the sciences at her school and often faced prejudice as a result of her sex. She is a big believer in trying to get more girls into science.
Adriana C. Ocampo Uria:
Planetary Scientist, European Space Agency In 1989, while examining satellite images of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, Ocampo Uria spotted the 130-mile-wide Chicxulub crater—the scar left behind by the asteroid impact that may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. She continues to study the crater "to understand how this event could have not only caused a mass extinction but also how it affected the evolution of life."
Helen Czerski:
She is probably best known for some of her presenting role's - for example in Dara O-Brian's Science Club for the BBC. However, she is also a very well-established and well-respected physist and oceanographer, having woked in Cambridge, Toronto, Los Alamos National Lab, Scripps in San Diego and Rhode Island and Southampton University.
Karen Nyberg:
Karen Nyberg is an American mechanical engineer and NASA astronaut. She was the 50th woman in space and is currently serving as part of Expedition 36 aboard the International Space Station.
Fabiola Gianotti:
Fabiola Gianotti is is an Italian particle physicist, and was one of the physicists leading the team working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock:
Dr. Aderin-Pocock is British, of Nigerian descent, and grew up in a council house in London. Since the age of three she’s wanted to be an astronaut. After being told that since she was a woman she’d have a better chance doing nursing than hard science, she rebelled and chose physics, eventually emerging with a PhD and a job as a space scientist. Since then she’s worked on so many different projects: massive telescopes, documentaries and even scientific consultancy for shows such as Doctor Who.
Athene Donald:
Athene was voted by The Daily Telegraph as one of Britain’s 100 most powerful women, and it’s easy to see why. She was the first female physics lecturer at Cambridge University, and since then, as well as having a highly successful academic career, has done a great deal to support women in physics, and science and technology more generally.
Check out her blog on Occam’s Typewriter to listen to her advice on careers in physics.
Be inspierd! Famous female Physicists
Although many people perceive or think of physics as an area dominated by males, there are many females who have contributed greatly in the development of physics. Without them, science would not be the way it is today.

Here are just some of these amazing women and what they have done for physics...
Professor Francisca Nneka Okeke:
Professor Francisca Nneka Okeke was recently awarded the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award. She lives and teaches in Nigeria and carries out her own work on the upper atmosphere to aid in the research contributing to our understanding of global warming. She was the first woman to be Head of the department of Physics at her university and is constantly trying to encourage more girls into physics. Click HERE to watch a video about her.
Getting Girls Interested in Physics.
