We provide links here to a number of physics biographies arranged by subject area in accordance with the (UK) secondary school physics curriculum, so that teachers and students can read about the work of a diverse range of physicists. Further information about some of these physicists – and others – can be found on the Wikipedia Women in Physics page. If you come across others you think we should include in the sections below, please let us know by email to executivedirector@sepnet.ac.uk.
Energy
Annie Easley (1933-2011)
Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
Maria Telkes (1900-1995)
Electricity
Hertha Ayrton (1854–1923) | Science museum – Women in physics
Olga Gonzalez-Sanabria
Esther Sans Takeuchi
Maria Telkes (1900-1995)
Particle model of matter
Marietta Blau (1894-1970)
Fabiola Gianotti (b. 1960)
Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
Hertha Wambacher (1902-1950)
Toshiko Yuasa (1909-1980)
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)
Atomic structure
Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934) | Science Museum – Women in physics | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956)
Berta Karlik (1904-1990)
Lise Meitner (1878-1968) | Science Museum – Women in physics | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Marguerite Perey (1909-1975)
Forces
Sophie Germain (1776-1831)
Waves
Optics and lasers
Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898-1979)
Charles Kao (1933-2018)
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Donna Strickland (b.1959)
Ibn Al-Haytham (c. 965 – c. 1040)
Magnetism and electricity
Space physics
Dark Matter
Vera Rubin (1928-2016) | More about Vera Rubin | How Vera Rubin encountered dark matter
Stellar and Galactic astrophysics
Erika Helga Ruth Böhm-Vitense (1923-2017) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (b.1943)
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995)
Dilhan Ezer Eryurt (1926-2012) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Andrea Ghez (b. 1965)
Edith Alice Müller (1918-1995) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Nancy Grace Roman (1925-2018)
Beatrice Muriel Tinsley (1941-1981) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921)
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Mary Sommerville (1780-1782)
Nuclear astrophysics
E. Margaret Peachey Burbidge (1919-2020) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Georgeanne (Jan) R. Caughlan (1916-1994) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
William Fowler (1911-1995)
Ștefania Mărăcineanu (1882-1944) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) | Women scientists who made nuclear astrophysics
Space Programme
Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)
Valentina Tereshkova (1937- )
Mae Jemison (1956- )
Computing
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
Lene Hau (1959- )
Engineering
Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903)