Ada Lovelace
First computer algorithm
Considered the first programmer in history, she wrote the first algorithm intended to be executed by a machine.
The Matilda Timeline
These extraordinary women scientists whose contributions have been minimized or attributed to others
Lise Meitner
Nuclear fission
An Austro-Swedish physicist, she discovered nuclear fission but the Nobel Prize was awarded only to her colleague Otto Hahn.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Composition of stars
A British-American astronomer, she discovered that stars are mainly composed of hydrogen and helium.
Chien-Shiung Wu
Parity in physics
A Chinese-American physicist, she conducted the experiment demonstrating parity violation, but only her male colleagues received the Nobel Prize.
Rosalind Franklin
DNA Structure (Photo 51)
Her X-ray crystallography work was essential to discovering the structure of DNA.
Nettie Stevens
Sex chromosomes
An American geneticist, she discovered that sex is determined by chromosomes (X and Y).
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Discovery of pulsars
A British astrophysicist, she discovered pulsars during her thesis, but the Nobel Prize was awarded to her thesis supervisor.