Though this great women lived only thirty-seven years, she played a crucial role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.
In 1951, Rosalind Franklin made her DNA discovery and took an x-ray photograph of a DNA molecule. Her discovery was shared without her permission between her boss, Maurice Wilkins and two other DNA researchers, James Watson and Francis Crick. Watson used the photographs in a grant proposal for further DNA research. Crick, Watson, and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for the research (Franklin died of Cancer before her colleagues received their award).
Not only did Dorothy Hansine Anderson discover and name the childhood disease cystic fibrosis, but she also devised the first test to diagnose this disease.
Anderson graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1926 after studying with noted anatomist Florence Sabin. She spent most of her career at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons serving as instructor in pathology and working Babies' Hospital. She tool over as chief of pathology at Babies' Hospital despite criticisms that she was unorganized and her interests in athletics and carpentry were "unladylike."
A familiar name to us all, Marie Curie (Salomee Sklodowski) was the first female success story in the field of science, winning two Nobel Prizes in an area dominated by men. Working with her husband Pierre, discovered radium, a substance that was 100,000 times as radioactive as uranium. Unfortunately, years of exposure to radiation took a toll on Marie: she lost a baby in a premature delivery, suffered from severe pain in her hands and poor vision. Curie eventually died of leukemia.
And finally a modern day crusader, Flossie Wong-Staal, one of the foremost authorities on viruses. Wong-Staal emigrated to California from Hong Kong to study molecular biology and bacteriology. From the 1970's to 1990, she worked at the National Cancer Institute with researcher Robert Gallo, playing a significant role in the discovery of HIV.
Since 1990, Wong-Staal has served as the Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at the University of California at San Diego, where she continues working to discover a vaccine for the AIDS virus and on therapies to treat those already suffering from the disease.
For more information on these great women, visit the links on my links page.
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