This winter, we are celebrating the festive season by honouring 25 amazing women in STEM, some of which you might not know of!

Mary the Prophetess

Alchemist
Between 1st and 3rd Centuries CE
Egypt

Mary the Prophetess was an alchemist who invented the bain-Marie, (Mary’s bath), which is still in use in kitchens and labs today. She is considered the first historical Western alchemist. It is said that she perfected the art of distillation, and could prepare caput mortuum, a purple haematite iron oxide pigment. It’s thought that she founded an alchemy academy in Alexandria.

Mary is variously called Mary, Maria, or Miriam the Jewess, Prophetess or Hebrew, or Maria Prophetissima or Prophetissa.

For more on Mary the Prophetess:

• http://scihi.org/mary-the-jewess-origins-chemistry/
• http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/library/reading_corner/Pages/maria_the_jewess.aspx
• http://historyofalchemy.com/list-of-alchemists/miriam-the-jewess/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_the_Jewess

This winter, we are celebrating the festive season by honouring 25 amazing women in STEM, some of which you might not know of!

Zelia Nuttall

Archaeologist and anthropologist
6 Sep 1857 – 12 Apr 1933
USA

Zelia Nuttall was a Mexican-American archaeologist who rescued, translated and published pre-Columbian Mesoamerican manuscripts. She also studied small terracotta heads from Teotihuacan, and discovered a site of human sacrifice on the Isla de Sacrificios. She challenged the idea that ancient Mexicans were “bloodthirsty savages”, and advocated for Mexicans to reclaim their indigenous heritage.

For more on Zelia Nuttall:

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeologist-who-helped-mexico-find-glory-its-past-180970700/
• https://trowelblazers.com/zelia-nutall/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelia_Nuttall
• https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/a-crowning-achievement-zelia-nuttall-in-czarist-russia/

This winter, we are celebrating the festive season by honouring 25 amazing women in STEM, some of which you might not know of!

Ellen Hutchins

Botanist
17 Mar 1785 – 9 Feb 1815
Ireland

Ellen Hutchins’ extensive collection of rare flora underpinned the work of leading botanists of her day, who featured her work in their books. She studied non-flowering plants like seaweed and moss, drawing them in exquisite detail as well as drying and annotating herbarium samples. She collected over 1,100 specimens from Bantry Bay and discovered several new species, some of which are named after her.   

For more on Ellen Hutchins:

• http://www.ellenhutchins.com/
• http://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/ellen-hutchins-1785-1815
• https://ardnagashel.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/a-memoir-of-the-life-of-ellen-hutchins/
• https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/the-cork-scientists-who-were-snubbed-by-sexism-285975.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Hutchins

This winter, we are celebrating the festive season by honouring 25 amazing women in STEM, some of which you might not know of!

Dr Rose Dieng-Kuntz

Computer scientist
1956 – 30 Jun 2008
Senegal/France

Rose Dieng-Kuntz was the first black African woman to be admitted to France’s École Polytechnique. She was a senior research scientist at INRIA, where she led a team exploring online knowledge acquisition, the semantic web, and artificial intelligence, just a few years after the web was launched. She was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur in 2006.

For more on Dr Rose Dieng-Kuntz:

• http://www.africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=155&lang=en
• https://www.surlatoile.com/WomenInScience/rose-dieng-kuntz/
• http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080717161931579
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Dieng-Kuntz