Genius has no gender: STEM stories that still shape our world

Boost Her Voice – Edition #3

They ‘fought like a girl’ and won like a legend. These women shaped science, medicine, math, and the future. Their breakthroughs are still part of your daily life.

From GPS to HIV treatments, from quantum tech to climate science—their work powers what we rely on every day.

Boost Her Voice shares their stories—12 at a time, every Monday.One year. Fifty-two editions. Six hundred twenty-four names worth knowing.

This is Edition #3—another set of STEM legends.

Eunice Foote – The Woman Who Measured the Heat of the Future

In 1856, Eunice Foote ran a simple experiment. She placed different gases in glass tubes and measured how much heat they absorbed under sunlight. One result stood out: carbon dioxide trapped more heat than any other. Her conclusion was clear. The composition of the atmosphere could change Earth’s temperature. Climate science wasn’t a field yet. But she had already discovered its foundation. She published her work and shared her findings. They weren’t disputed. But they also weren’t widely shared. Another scientist, John Tyndall, published similar research years later—and his version made it into the textbooks. Foote didn’t stop there. She patented inventions. She advocated for women’s rights. She stayed curious. Today, her name is finally part of the story. Her experiment still sits at the heart of how we understand climate change. She documented the danger. The world just failed to respond.

Mary Cartwright – The Mathematician Who Tamed Chaos

During World War II, military engineers faced a problem they couldn’t solve. The new radar systems—essential for detecting enemy aircraft—were producing unpredictable, unstable signals. Mary Cartwright, a British mathematician, was called in to help. Working with John Littlewood, she studied the nonlinear equations behind the radar's behavior. The result? A breakthrough in what we now call chaos theory—the mathematics of seemingly random systems governed by precise rules. Her research didn’t just fix radar. It laid the groundwork for modern systems science, from weather forecasting to engineering and even economics. For decades, chaos theory was associated with names that came later. But Cartwright was there first, mapping complexity before it had a name. She became the first female president of the London Mathematical Society, the first woman to win the De Morgan Medal, and one of the earliest women admitted to the Royal Society. Today, her math keeps your tech running, your GPS stable, and your systems secure. Not by accident. By design. Hers.

Gerty Cori – She Mapped How the Body Fuels Movement and Repair

In the 1920s, she uncovered how our cells turn glucose into energy—work that became the Cori cycle. It explained how muscles recover, how energy is stored, and how the body repairs itself after strain. It was the breakthrough that made treatments for diabetes and metabolic disorders possible. And yet, for years, she was kept in junior lab roles while others took credit. In 1947, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Her discoveries shaped modern biochemistry. Her career opened the door for countless others. Her work still powers the science behind human strength.

Valentina Tereshkova – The Woman Who Took Space Solo

In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Not as an assistant. Not as a side mission. She flew alone. Before her, all astronauts were men. All missions were male-led. Valentina had no military pilot background. She was a textile worker. But she trained in secret, matching every technical, physical, and mental test. She orbited Earth 48 times in 71 hours aboard Vostok 6.With no co-pilot. No exit route. No margin for error. Her mission wasn’t symbolic—it was strategic. The USSR needed proof that women could match men in space. She gave them more than that. After landing, she wasn’t sent back again. Her male peers were. But the record was set. She flew farther than any man before her. Decades passed. No other woman flew solo again. Still, her path proved space was not a gendered frontier. Valentina didn’t just board a spacecraft. She altered who belongs there. She claimed orbit—and left the door wide open.

Nalini Joshi – The Mathematician Who Opened Doors

Nalini Joshi didn’t just solve equations—she changed access to math. Born in Myanmar and raised in Australia, she broke every pattern. As a child, her family fled political instability and moved continents. She didn’t speak English. She didn’t fit in. But she kept learning. Years later, she became the first female mathematics professor at the University of Sydney in its 150-year history. Her field? Nonlinear differential equations. She decoded the math behind complex systems in nature and physics. But her impact went further. Nalini co-founded the SAGE initiative, a national program advancing gender equity in science. She didn’t climb the ladder—she rebuilt it. From research labs to leadership councils, she brought change. She showed that a mathematician isn’t defined by origin or gender. It’s defined by vision—and persistence. Nalini’s work shaped more than formulas. She changed the equation for who gets to belong.

Fabiola Gianotti – The Woman Who Proved the Universe Right

Fabiola Gianotti led one of the most ambitious physics experiments ever. As Director-General of CERN, she oversaw the discovery of the Higgs boson. It took decades. Billions in funding. And countless skeptical voices. But under her leadership, the Large Hadron Collider found what was missing. The Higgs boson wasn’t just a theory—it explained mass itself. Without it, physics didn’t add up. With it, everything aligned. Fabiola wasn’t brought in for diversity. She earned the role. She led 10,000 scientists with clarity and resolve. Her impact wasn’t limited to science. She became the first woman to head CERN—then was re-elected to do it again. In physics, presence matters. And her leadership changed what presence looked like.

Hayat Sindi – The Innovator Who Made Science Accessible

From Mecca to Harvard, she broke rules and built solutions. Hayat Sindi became a biotech pioneer with one goal: to bring diagnostics to those without access. She invented low-cost tools that don’t require electricity—saving lives in villages, refugee camps, and war zones. She co-founded Diagnostics For All. She advised the UN. She mentored scientists across the Middle East. Hayat didn’t make science simpler—she made it reachable. Not everyone gets a lab. But everyone deserves a diagnosis.Her work still answers that call.

Nicole-Reine Lepaute – The Woman Who Timed the Heavens

In the 1700s, she calculated the return of Halley’s Comet—decades before it appeared. She mapped eclipses and planetary motion, doing the work by hand in an age before machines or recognition. Nicole-Reine Lepaute was one of the earliest professional female astronomers. But she wasn’t remembered as one. She collaborated with the top scientists of her time. Her work was published. But her name was often erased or buried in footnotes. Her mathematical precision, however, couldn’t be edited out.

She factored in gravitational effects no one else could, allowing for more accurate predictions of celestial events. Her eclipse tables were used across Europe. Her astronomical models became the quiet foundation of later discoveries. She didn’t hold titles. She didn’t attend the academies. But she measured the skies with an accuracy that rivaled the best. Modern astronomy owes her. Few know it. Her name may have faded. Her math never did.

Erika Tatiana Camacho – The Woman Who Gave Vision to Math

She grew up in East LA, raised by immigrant parents, navigating a school system that rarely expected greatness from girls like her. Erika Camacho became a mathematician anyway. Then she made it easier for others to follow. Her research modeled retinal degeneration—how vision deteriorates, how cells fail, how light becomes data and disappears. Her work deepened what we know about sight. But her greater focus was always equity.

She built programs to bring first-generation and underrepresented students into STEM. She advocated for structural change in hiring, mentorship, and academic gatekeeping. She called out the way science silences—and rewired what inclusion looks like. Her field is mathematical biology. Her work is technical. But her legacy is human: A clearer image of what talent looks like when barriers are removed.

Katherine Johnson – The Woman Who Mapped Paths to the Moon

She didn’t ask to make history. She just did the math. Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories for Mercury and Apollo—plotted how to reach orbit and how to return. Her pencil and paper brought astronauts to the moon and back, at a time when computers were still learning and men ran the missions. She worked in segregated Virginia, where NASA’s human computers were Black women—unseen, underpaid, and expected to stay silent. Johnson’s math was too good to ignore.

She calculated the launch window for Alan Shepard. She double-checked John Glenn’s flight path by hand. She mapped the route to the moon—and got it right.

For decades, her name stayed buried. But the rockets carried her work. Every liftoff used her logic. Katherine Johnson didn’t just send astronauts into space.She proved who belongs in the room.

Kathrin Jansen – The Woman Who Conquered Silent Killers

Her name isn’t in headlines. But her science changed the world—twice. Kathrin Jansen led the development of the HPV vaccine, which now prevents cervical cancer in millions of women. Years later, she took the lead at Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic—overseeing vaccine development at record speed.

While others debated, she delivered. Her team moved from research to rollout in under a year—without cutting corners. It was one of the most successful pharmaceutical deployments in history. Jansen’s background is molecular biology. Her focus is efficiency. Her record is undeniable. Cancer and COVID—two global threats. Two breakthroughs. She didn’t seek the spotlight. She built the solution. And kept moving.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi – The Woman Who Discovered HIV

In 1983, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and her team at the Pasteur Institute identified HIV as the virus that causes AIDS. At the time, the epidemic was growing, stigma was fierce, and science had no answers. Her discovery cracked open the biology behind the crisis. It made diagnosis possible. Treatment possible. Hope possible.

She faced political pressure, discrimination, and disbelief. But her data held. Her research saved lives. Françoise continued to work in the field long after the discovery. She advocated for patients, fought for affordable access to medicine, and stayed committed to science over spectacle. She didn’t just name a virus. She helped the world fight back.

36 Stories Told. What Stories Will You Tell?

These 12 women didn’t just make history—they’re rewriting it. From unraveling the universe to engineering solutions that save lives, their discoveries shape the world we inhabit. They shattered boundaries. They defied expectations. They built legacies that science still stands on. But too often, their names were left out. Their work was often claimed by others. Their impact absorbed without credit. That’s why we tell these stories—week after week. Not just to correct the record.But to change what gets recorded next.

36 stories down. 588 more to come. Whose story will you tell?

Thanks to Instant Power for supporting this series—because visibility should never be optional.