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Marie Curie was a pioneering physicist and chemist known for her groundbreaking research on radioactivity. Born in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, she later moved to France to pursue higher education at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), where she excelled in physics and mathematics. Despite facing gender barriers in the scientific community, she made remarkable contributions and became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Curie, along with her husband Pierre Curie, discovered two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium, in 1898. She developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and studied their properties. Her research was instrumental in understanding radioactivity, a term she coined, and its applications in medicine and industry. She also pioneered the use of radium in cancer treatment, laying the foundation for modern radiotherapy.

Marie Curie’s special achievements include being the first person to win two Nobel Prizes—one in Physics (1903, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) and another in Chemistry (1911) for her work on radium and polonium. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris. Her contributions revolutionized science, and her legacy continues through the Curie Institutes, which focus on medical research.

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Dr. Bibha Chowdhuri: The Forgotten Star of Indian Physics

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Dr. Bibha Chowdhuri: The Forgotten Star of Indian Physics

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Dr. Bibha Chowdhuri was a pioneering Indian physicist who made significant contributions to cosmic ray physics. She was among the first women in India to pursue a career in physics at a time when the field was dominated by men.

Key Contributions:

Cosmic Ray Research: She worked with physicist D.M. Bose and co-discovered a new type of subatomic particle, later identified as the pi-meson (pion), before its official discovery by Cecil Powell in 1947.

Work at TIFR: She later joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) under Homi Bhabha and contributed to high-energy physics experiments.

International Recognition: She worked at the University of Manchester under Patrick Blackett, a Nobel Laureate.

Contributions to India's Nuclear Science: She was involved in the Kolar Gold Field (KGF) experiments, studying cosmic rays deep underground.

Legacy:

Despite her groundbreaking work, Bibha Chowdhuri remained largely unrecognized during her lifetime. In 2017, a star was named "Bibha" in her honor, symbolizing her lasting impact on Indian science.

She remains an inspiration for women in STEM, proving that perseverance and passion can break barriers in science.

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The Woman Who Changed Physics, Yet Was Denied a Nobel!

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Lise Meitner was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who played a key role in discovering nuclear fission. Despite facing gender barriers, she earned a PhD in physics and worked with Otto Hahn in Berlin.

In 1938, their experiments led to the discovery that uranium nuclei could split, but only Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize. Meitner, along with her nephew Otto Frisch, provided the theoretical explanation of nuclear fission, which later led to nuclear energy and weapons.

Though overlooked for the Nobel, she received the Enrico Fermi Award (1966), and element meitnerium (Mt) was named after her. She is remembered as a pioneer for women in science!

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Jocelyn Bell (Burnell) pictured at the Mullard Radio Observatory in 1967 with the pulsar chart, left. Image courtesy of the Cavendish Laboratory.

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Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Denied her credit for being a woman

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Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Denied her credit for being a woman

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Today we know pulsars as astronomical clocks and we use methods like Pulsar Timing Array to synchronize our Astronomical data. But who actually discovered pulsars?!

It was none other than Jocelyn Bell Burnell. In 1974, They Gave the Nobel Prize to Her Supervisor.

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a graduate student at Cambridge, working on a dissertation about strange objects in distant galaxies known as quasars. She and her supervisor, Antony Hewish, had built a radio telescope to observe them. Data from the telescope scrolled out from a machine — a line in red ink, scrawling across 96 feet of chart paper each day.

As she pored over the data, she noticed something strange: "an unclassifiable squiggle," she recalls. It indicated mysterious radio waves, pulsing repeatedly.

So she took more data from the telescope and kept scouring — but the blip vanished. A month later, the signal returned.

Bell Burnell brought the results to Hewish.

"He said, 'That settles it, it's manmade, it's artificial radio interference,'" she recounted to the newspaper. But she knew it couldn't be interference: The radio waves were coming from something moving at the same speed as the stars — meaning the source of the pulses had to be in space.

The dense objects responsible for the squiggles are now known as pulsars – rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit radiation. Their observation is considered one of the one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the 20th century.

"The excitement was because this was a totally unexpected, totally new kind of object, behaving in a way that astronomers had never expected, never dreamt of," she said in a 2010 BBC documentary.

The discovery of pulsars was so important that it won a 1974 Nobel Prize – for Hewish.

She wasn't given credit for it but also the fact in any interview she was just asked about her clothes, her hair and etc but they never felt it important to ask her any intelligent questions!!

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Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997) was a Chinese-American physicist known for her groundbreaking work in nuclear physics. She played a crucial role in the Manhattan Project and later conducted the famous Wu Experiment, which provided experimental proof that weak interactions violate parity conservation - a fundamental principle in physics. Despite her contributions, her male colleagues received the Nobel Prize in 1957, highlighting the gender bias in science. Wu is often called the "First Lady of Physics" for her significant impact on the field.

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Ruby Violet Payne-Scott (28 May 1912 – 25 May 1981) was an Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy, and was one of two Antipodean women pioneers in radio astronomy and radio physics at the end of the second world war.

Ruby Payne-Scott was born on 28 May 1912 in Grafton, New South Wales. She attended the Penrith Public Primary School (1921–24),and the Cleveland-Street Girls' High School (1925–26),before completing her secondary schooling at Sydney Girls High School. Her school leaving certificate included honours in mathematics and botany. She won two scholarships to undertake tertiary education at the University of Sydney, where she studied physics, chemistry, mathematics and botany. She earned a BSc in 1933, the third woman to graduate in physics there followed by an MSc in physics in 1936 and a Diploma of Education in 1938.

In 1936, Payne-Scott conducted research with William H. Love at the Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Sydney. They determined that the magnetism of the Earth had little or no effect on the vital processes of beings living on the Earth by cultivating chicken embryos with no observable differences, despite being in magnetic fields up to 5,000 times as powerful as that of the Earth.

On 18 August 1941, Payne-Scott joined the Radiophysics Laboratory of the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). During World War II, she was engaged in top secret work investigating radar technology, becoming Australia's expert on the detection of aircraft using Plan Position Indicator (PPI) displays. After the war, in 1948, she published a comprehensive report on factors affecting visibility on PPI displays. She also made important contributions to prototype radar systems operating in the 25cm microwave band, achieving significant improvements. As the focus of the Radiophysics Lab switched from developing radar systems to repurposing them for scientific pursuits, she was a major contributor to setting new goals. Payne-Scott's expertise as both a physicist and an electrical engineer distinguished her among her colleagues, most of whom lacked a formal physics education. In October 1945, together with Joe Pawsey, who acknowledged her potential in the field of radio astronomy and motivated her to apply her skills using radios techniques, and Lindsay McCready, she wrote to Nature documenting a connection between sunspots and increased radio emissions from the Sun (published February 1946). In December 1945, she authored a summary of "all knowledge available and measurements taken" at the Radiophysics Lab, and suggested future research directions that "set the thinking" for the group. From 1946 to 1951, Payne-Scott focused on these 'burst' radio emissions from the Sun, and is credited with discovering Type I and III bursts, and with gathering data that helped characterise Types II and IV. As part of this work, together with Alec Little, she designed and built a new 'swept-lobe' interferometer that could draw a map of solar radio emission strength and polarization once every second, and would automatically record to a movie camera whenever emissions reached a certain intensity.

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Elena Aprile (Born 1954) is an Italian-American experimental physicist known for her pioneering work in dark matter detection. She developed liquid xenon time projection chambers (LXeTPCs), revolutionizing direct searches for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In 2002, she founded the XENON collaboration, leading experiments like XENON100, XENON1T, and XENONnT, which set world records for dark matter sensitivity. Her work has also advanced gamma-ray astronomy and influenced future dark matter detection technologies. Aprile continues to lead the XENON collaboration, working towards the detection of dark matter.

A professor at Columbia University, Aprile is a member of the American Physical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. She received the Lise Meitner Prize (2019) for her contributions to experimental physics. Her research continues to push the boundaries of particle physics, making significant strides toward solving one of the greatest mysteries in cosmology—the nature of dark matter.

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Donna Strickland was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. She became interested in laser and electrooptics early and studied at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She pursued her doctoral studies in the U.S. at the University of Rochester, where she did her Nobel Prize awarded work. She obtained her PhD in 1989. She subsequently has worked at Princeton University and since 1997 at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

The sharp beams of laser light have given us new opportunities for deepening our knowledge about the world and shaping it. In 1985, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland succeeded in creating ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses without destroying the amplifying material. First they stretched the laser pulses in time to reduce their peak power, then amplified them, and finally compressed them. The intensity of the pulse then increases dramatically. Chirped pulse amplification has many uses, including corrective eye surgeries.

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Tessy Thomas is an eminent Indian scientist known for her crucial role in India's missile development programs. She is often called the "Missile Woman of India" for being the first woman to lead a major missile project in India.

Key Facts:

• Born: April 1963, Kerala, India

•Field: Aerospace Engineering, •Missile Technology

•Notable Work: Project Director for Agni-IV and Agni-V missiles

•Current Role: Distinguished Scientist at DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation)

•Achievements:

First woman to head an Indian missile project

Played a key role in India's nuclear-capable Agni missile program

Recipient of several awards for her contributions to defense technology

She is a role model for women in STEM and has paved the way for greater female participation in defense research and engineering in India.

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Tessy Thomas - Most Powerful Women in 2021 - Fortune India

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Tessy Thomas - Most powerful business women in the list of Fortune India 2021

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Andrea M. Ghez, professor of Physics & Astronomy and Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, is one of the world’s leading experts in observational astrophysics and heads UCLA’s Galactic Center Group. Best known for her ground-breaking work on the center of our Galaxy, which has led to the best evidence to date for the existence of supermassive black holes, she has received numerous honors and awards including the Nobel Prize in 2020, she became the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing one half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel (the other half of the prize being awarded to Roger Penrose). The Nobel Prize was awarded to Ghez and Genzel for their Independent discovery of a supermassive compact object, now generally recognized to be a black hole, in the Milky Way's galactic center, the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy from the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (she is the first woman to receive a Crafoord prize in any field), Bakerian Medal from the Royal Society of London, a MacArthur Fellowship, election to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Her work on the orbits of stars at the center of the Milky Way has opened a new approach to studying black holes and her group is currently focused on using this approach to understand the physics of gravity near a black hole and the role that black holes plays in the formation and evolution of galaxies.

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Emmy Noether: The Trailblazing Mathematician Who Revolutionized Physics

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Emmy Noether: The Trailblazing Mathematician Who Revolutionized Physics

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Emmy Noether was a groundbreaking mathematician and physicist whose work fundamentally shaped modern theoretical physics and mathematics. Best known for Noether’s theorem, she established the deep connection between symmetries in nature and conservation laws, forming a cornerstone of modern physics. Despite facing gender discrimination throughout her career, her contributions to algebra, relativity, and quantum mechanics remain essential to scientific advancements.

Born on March 23, 1882, in Erlangen, Germany, Noether initially planned to become a language teacher but later shifted to mathematics, a field dominated by men. She pursued her doctorate at the University of Erlangen, where she faced significant barriers, including being initially barred from formal enrollment. After earning her Ph.D. in 1907, she worked unpaid at the Mathematical Institute in Göttingen under the guidance of eminent mathematicians like David Hilbert and Felix Klein. Despite her brilliance, she struggled for recognition and was not given a salaried academic position for many years.

Her most profound contribution came in 1915 when she formulated Noether’s theorem, proving that every symmetry in a physical system corresponds to a conserved quantity. This theorem became fundamental to Einstein’s general relativity, quantum mechanics, and particle physics, providing the mathematical framework for understanding conservation laws such as energy, momentum, and charge. Her work extended beyond physics into abstract algebra, where she revolutionized the study of rings, fields, and ideals, laying the groundwork for modern algebraic structures used in physics and mathematics today.

Despite her immense contributions, Noether continued to face gender-based obstacles. She was only allowed to lecture under Hilbert’s name for several years before being officially recognized as a professor. With the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933, she was dismissed from her position at Göttingen due to her Jewish heritage. She relocated to the United States, where she worked at Bryn Mawr College and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, continuing her research and mentoring young mathematicians. Tragically, her career was cut short when she died from complications after surgery in 1935 at the age of 53.

Although largely unrecognized during her lifetime, Noether’s work has since been hailed as one of the most profound mathematical contributions to physics. Noether’s theorem remains a fundamental principle in theoretical physics, influencing everything from quantum field theory to the Standard Model of particle physics. Today, she is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, and her story continues to inspire women in STEM fields, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and intellectual curiosity in the face of adversity.

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At a time when women in science were rare, Dr. Purnima Sinha defied the odds. The first woman from Calcutta University to earn a PhD in Physics (1956). She did work in the field of x-ray crystallography of clay minerals. Scouring Kolkata's footpaths, she salvaged WW2 army surplus and repurposed discarded parts to build the X-ray apparatus needed for her research. Not only did she build it, but she also went on to study different types of clay from across India.

Guided by the legendary Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose, she studied the structure of Indian clay - work that later took her to Stanford University for advanced research in biophysics. She went on to work at the Geological Survey of India, J C Bose Institute, and the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, making significant contributions to the physics of ceramics and colour.

But Dr Sinha was much more than a scientist. A true polymath, she translated Erwin Schrödinger's works into Bengali, played the tabla under Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh, and chronicled India's folk music. She even started an informal school for tribal children in Shantiniketan!

Though she passed away in 2015, Dr Purnima Sinha's contributions to science, education, and arts make her a true pioneer. Her story is proof that passion and perseverance can break any barrier.

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Rohini M. Godbole is an eminent Indian theoretical physicist known for her significant contributions to particle physics, particularly in the areas of high-energy physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and the study of the Higgs boson. She has made notable advancements in understanding the Standard Model of particle physics and beyond, focusing on the behavior of particles under extreme conditions.

Key Contributions:

1. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD):
Godbole has worked extensively on understanding QCD processes, including the role of gluons in the structure of protons and neutrons, and the impact of parton distributions on particle collisions at high energies.

2. Higgs Physics:
She contributed to research on the properties and production mechanisms of the Higgs boson, which was crucial in the discovery and study of this fundamental particle at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

3. Beyond the Standard Model:
Her research has explored phenomena beyond the Standard Model, including supersymmetry and dark matter. She has proposed methods to detect signs of new physics in collider experiments.

4. Collider Physics:
Godbole has been involved in theoretical and phenomenological studies related to experiments at large-scale particle colliders, such as the LHC, aiding in interpreting experimental data.

5. Women in Science:
Apart from her scientific contributions, Godbole is an advocate for gender equality in science. She has co-authored the book "Lilavati's Daughters: The Women Scientists of India," highlighting the achievements of Indian women in science.

Her work has played a critical role in advancing our understanding of particle interactions and the fundamental forces of nature.

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Noted physicist Rohini Godbole, a staunch advocate for women in ...