Isabella Karle (1921-2017). Last month we lost another great woman in science, crystallographer Isabella L. Karle, who helped develop methods to determine the structure of biological molecules. Isabella was born in Detroit in 1921 and received a PhD in chemistry from the University of Michigan, where forced alphabetical seating in a class led her...
This special WiSE Wednesday, we revisit one of our past honorees as she visits us! Jane Richardson is a true “Renaissance Woman;” born in New Jersey in 1941, her highly productive career has included work in the areas of astronomy, philosophy, biophysics, art, and computational biology (just to name a few). As a biophysicist...
There are some scientists who can capture an entire room; one such person is this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, Dr. Joan Steitz, whose enthusiasm for science I had the honor of witnessing this past weekend. As one of the key figures in research of mRNA splicing, she visited Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as co-organizer...
Organic chemist Emīlija Gudriniece (1920-2004) was one of the first scientists to recognize the potential to produce fuel from vegetable oils. Gudriniece was born and raised in Latvia, where she studied chemistry at the University of Latvia. After becoming a professor at Riga Polytechnic, she founded a Department of Organic Synthesis and Biotechnology there...
The lack of women among this year’s Nobel Prize winners has brought attention to the serious underrepresentation of women in positions of power in science. This WiSE Wednesday, we honor one of the rare female Nobel laureates, German developmental biologist Dr. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard not only for her accomplishments in science but also for her...
