Women in STEM

Celebrating some of the inspiring women in STEM

By WiCSM UTSC

Ada Lovelace

December 10, 1815 - November 27, 1852
London, England

A British mathematician and computer engineer who wrote the first computer program
Her ideas in computing were so far ahead of their time that her contributions in the industry weren't recognized until nearly a century later
Ada envisioned that any piece of content—including music, text, pictures and sounds—could be translated to digital form and manipulated by machine (the modern computer)

By WiCSM UTSC

May 16, 1925 - December 25, 2018
Tennessee, United States

NASA's first chief astronomer, Nancy Roman was instrumental in taking NASA's Hubble Space Telescope from an idea to reality
She is commonly known as the "Mother of the Hubble"
Throughout her career, she was an active public speaker, educator, and advocate for women in the sciences

By WiCSM UTSC

May 29, 1912 - Feb 16, 1997
Suzhou, China - New York, United States

Made significant development in the process of separating uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238
Using her work with beta particles, Dr. Wu discovered identical nuclear particles do not always act alike
This led to Dr. Wu being able to disprove a widely accepted "law" of nature

By WiCSM UTSC

Aug 17, 1936
Indiana, United States

Most well known for lead work in the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program
She is credited by NASA to have coined the term "Software Engineering"
She received the highest amount of money ($37,000 USD) ever received by a NASA Exceptional Space Act Award recipient

By WiCSM UTSC

Aug 26, 1918 - Feb 24, 2020
West Virginia, United States

Took a prominent role in confirming the accuracy of electronic computers used by NASA by calculating complex equations
Her and her co-workers were employed as "computers" by NASA for their task of performing these calculations
Her career in NASA is the real-life inspiration behind the main character of Hollywood's "Hidden Figures"

By WiCSM UTSC

1970
British Columbia, Canada

First Canadian female general surgeon of First Nations (Ojibway)
First female First Nations student to graduate from University of British Columbia's medical school
Caron was rewarded for public health studies concerning Rural and First Nations populations

By WiCSM UTSC

May 10, 1942 - Jan 6, 2012
India - United States

The first woman admitted to the engineering college that she attended in India
Upon graduating, Damyanti moved to the United States and began her career with Ford Motors in 1967
Damyanti Gupta was the first woman with a Masters of Engineering hired by Ford Motors

By WiCSM UTSC

Aleppo, Syria - Montreal, Canada

A Canadian refugee from Syria, Shoushi Bakarian is said to be the brains behind the newest aviation innovation at Stratos Aviation
Her innovation was to cool cabin spaces by compressing and cooling air
Shoushi is currently pursuing an engineering degree at Concordia University, working part-time at Stratos Aviation, is a scout leader for elementary aged children, and tutoring newly arrived Syrian children

By WiCSM UTSC

Mar 17, 1962 - Feb 1, 2003
Haryana, India - Texas, United States

From enjoying stargazing as a young child, to earning a doctorate in aerospace engineering, Dr. Kalpana Chawla is most known for being the first woman of Indian origin to go to space