Great Women Productions

Great Women of Physics & Chemistry

Portrait Subjects

Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy discovered the molecular structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin- and is the only British woman to receive a Nobel Prize in science.

Alice Ball

Alice was only 23 when she came up with the only effective treatment for leprosy prior to the discovery of antibiotics. She died at 24 - and someone else took credit for her discovery.

Rosalind Franklin

Trailblazing chemist and X-ray crystallographer, whose 'Photo 51' revealed the double helix of DNA, Rosalind's called “The Dark Lady of DNA” because not many know her contribution to understanding DNA.

Gertrude 'Trudy' Elion

Trudy's work changed the way drugs are developed. She and her partner came up with our modern treatments for leukemia in children, malaria, autoimmune disease and more - and paved the path to the first AIDS treatment, AZT.

Geneviève d’Arconville

An anatomist, Genevieve was known for her translations of scholars and respected by some of the greatest scientists of the Enlightenment.

Elizabeth Fulhame

Recent scholarship suggests that the invention of photography should, in fact, be credited to a woman: Elizabeth Fulhame.

Marie Meurdrac

Housewife and self-taught chemist Marie Meurdrac (1610–1680) taught French women practical chemical recipes along with organic chemistry principles and procedures and - with her chemistry textbook - openly challenged societal norms. Her goal: to give women access to science.

Harriet Brooks

HERTHA AYRTON

Space held for our next Great Woman

"For much of history, Anonymous was a woman" - Virginia Woolf

Lise Meitner

A pioneer in the study of radioactivity, Lise played a crucial role in the complex process that led to the discovery of nuclear fission in late 1938 - her research partner was given a Nobel Prize. Lise was left in the footnotes.

Marie Maynard Daly

Marie was the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. (She also actively promoted diversification in STEM.)

Dr. Marie Equi, fierce feminist physician

Artist Jo Napier helps you invite Great Women into your professional space: creating Great Women portrait commissions, like this one of Oregon physician, feminist, and fierce advocate for women's rights, Dr. Marie Equi (30 x 40 oil pastel and acrylic)