Up until the late 20th Century, the STEM fields remained dominated by men. Gradually women joined the STEM ranks and in recent years women began to have a significant impact within these fields, making key strides in biology, medicine, engineering, and other areas. AcademicInfluence.com, focusing on the last decade, is honoring the top 40 female innovators through their publication of the Top Women in STEM list.
Each individual on the list was judged to have had a profound impact in their critical scientific area, with developments in human genome editing, environmental sustainability, cryptography and others. Groundbreaking biochemists, environmental scientists, technologists, and even Nobel Prize winners are honored.
Among them is Emmanuelle Charpentier, the Founding and Acting Director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens at Humboldt University. Her contributions to science include working with Jennifer Doudna to decode the molecular mechanisms of the CRISPR/Cas9 bacterial immune system. This breakthrough allowed scientists the world over to edit the genome using Cas9.
“In the spirit of the recent Nobel Prize selections, we want to draw attention to those women who in the past 10 years have made the greatest impact in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” said Dr. Jed Macosko, professor of physics at Wake Forest University and academic director of AcademicInfluence.com. “Too many brilliant people labor out of the spotlight, and we believe that everyone who values education and the pursuit of knowledge can benefit from knowing who these scientists and researchers are and how their work improves our lives.”
Read about how Girls in Tech is helping more women enter STEM fields
