Women Inventors Awarded a Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in the sciences is universally considered one of the most prestigious distinctions for significant contributions to scientific knowledge and development. It has been awarded since 1901, in Physics and Chemistry, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and, in Physiology or Medicine, by the Medical Nobel Assembly.

Eleven women, from a total of 500 scientists, have been awarded a Nobel Prize in the sciences (chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine), from 1901 to July 2005. Among them, Marie Curie is the only person ever to have twice received a Nobel Prize in the sciences, each time in a different field of specialization: in Physics, in 1903, and in Chemistry, in 1911.

Curie, Marie (née Sklodowska) (1867-1934) (French) Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, jointly with Curie, Pierre, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Curie, Marie (née Sklodowska) (1867-1934) (French) Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements, radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element."

Joliot-Curie, Irène (1897-1956) (French) Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, jointly with Joliot, Frédéric, "in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements."

Cori, Gerty T. (née Radnitz) (1896-1957) (American) Nobel Price in Physiology or Medicine in 1947, jointly with Cori, C.F., "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen."

Goeppert-Mayer, Maria (1906-1972) (American) Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963, jointly with Jensen, J. Hans D., "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure."

Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot (1910-1994) (British) Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances."

Yalow, Rosalyn S. (1921-) (American) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1977, "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones."

McClintock, Barbara (1902-1992) (American) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983, "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements."

Levi-Montalcini, Rita (1909-) (Italian and American) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986, jointly with Cohen, Stanley, "for their discoveries of growth factors."

Elion, Gertrude B. (1918-1999) (American) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988, jointly with Black, James and Hitchings, George "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment."

Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane (1942-) (German) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, jointly with Lewis, Edward B., and Wieschaus, Eric F., "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development."

Buck Linda B. (1947-) (American) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004, jointly with Richard Axel, "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system".

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