Winter 2020

America needs more young people involved in STEM subjects to maintain its position as a global leader. We can’t afford to overlook women or minority students.

The Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of the USA recalls how she was inspired to become a NASA rocket scientist by experiences as a young girl.

Madame Curie devoted her life to unravelling the mysteries of radioactivity and discovered two new elements in the process.

In 1712 a female inventor in the Colonies patented devices with the King of England.

She just needed a way to correct her many typos.

A former patent examiner uncovers numerous examples of remarkable ingenuity.

As the leader of the Network Information Center (NIC), Feinler led the team that devised today’s familiar internet dot-com domains.

In a top-secret program, talented, young female mathematicians calculated the artillery and bomb trajectories that American GIs and airmen used to win World War II.

One of the first computer programmers, she helped develop the widely used COBOL language and became a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy

Few inventors have been more glamorous than actress Hedy Lamarr, whose idea for a torpedo-guidance system is still used by today's military.

Diabetics could enjoy easier lives thanks to her development of self-testing tools.

Her three-dimensional map of Earth tracked early satellites, advanced the science of geodesy, and led to GPS.

The “mother” of modern research on tropical clouds helped bring about major improvements in  weather prediction.

She did it because the servants broke the china

Unhappy with confining corsets in the Edwardian era, an enterprising young woman filed the first patent for a modern bra. 

Women inventors created many of the 19th Century patent models at the Hagley Museum.

The developer of early computer software for defense applications, she was a trailblazer in the fields of data encryption, lasers, and medical technology.

She became the youngest self-made female billionaire after her innovative line of Spanx undergarments took off.

“I was able to be creative and work as hard as I wanted.”

Stargazing as a girl led to transforming our knowledge of the universe.

Millions of newborn babies have benefitted from her standardized APGAR test to assess their health.

Stanford Univeristy undergrad Brooke Martin created iCPooch, a device that eases pets separation anxiety when their owners are away.

Katy Flannery created lactose free ice cream with the rich, creamy taste of the dairy ice cream that she grew up loving.

Their micro eyedropper cuts medication costs — especially for those most in need.