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Though neither of her parents had a background in science, they both encouraged her when she was a child to explore her wants. Her mother bought Bath her first chemistry set.

If someone was treated for cancer in 2002, they had a 33% chance of their treatment benefitting Wani’s actions.

Many people credit Chandrasekhar’s mother, Sita Balakrishnan, who was devoted to intellectual pursuits, for inspiring Chandra’s curiosity at a young age. In 1979, NASA named one of its four “Great Observatories” after him, to celebrate his research and legacy.

In 2021, the Washington D.C. headquarters of NASA was renamed the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters.

“The only phrase I’ve ever disliked is, ‘Why, we’ve always done it that way.’ I always tell young people, ‘Go ahead and do it. You can always apologize later.'”

With a B.A. in Mathematics earned in 1929, Dorothy was hired by NASA (then NACA) in 1943, during the height of World War 2.

Changed the course of the gaming industry with the introduction of a gaming system that used cartridges.

Wong-Staal co-founded Immusol, a biopharmaceutical company, and specialized it into supplying drugs to treat hepatitis C. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for her accomplishments in the medical field.

She is remembered for her cancer cells - rather, the HeLa cell line derived from those cancer cells, the first immortalized human cell line, used in medical research from the days of her death to today.

Wu attended a school started by her father, who based his policies off of education for girls, despite the concept being a rare belief at the time. Her ashes were spread and buried at this school after her passing.

Kapany was the founding chairman of the Sikh Foundation, and funded much of its activities for over five decades.

In 1908 Garrett co-founded the Cleveland Association of Colored Men, which helped to support the black community in his hometown, and donated money to historically black colleges and universities.

His inventions in refrigeration are crucial in today’s food delivery supply chain. Without his inventions, transporting perishable foods cross-country would not be possible.

Founder of Black Girls Code.

Lamarr was an only child, and her father spent much time with her in her early years. Reportedly, he would take her for long walks to discuss the inner workings of machines, and encouraged her to look at the world with open eyes.

Bell Burnell’s father was an architect, who was one of the designers for the Armagh Planetarium - he encouraged her to pursue a career in astronomy. Later, when she attended a prep course through Lurgan College, a place with policies that restricted women from studying science, her parents (and others) challenged those policies and enabled her to study what she wanted to.

His greatest accomplishment was probably the invention of the portable air-cooling unit for trucks that were carrying perishables, which was used extensively during World War 2.

By the age of 13, this STEM innovator was attending the high school on the campus of West Virginia State College. When the school decided to integrate its graduate schools in 1939, Katherine and two others were selected to be the first black students offered spots at West Virginia University.

Haynes was born in 1890, to a dentist father and a mother very active in the Catholic church. In 1930, she received a master’s degree in education, and founded the math department at the University of the District of Columbia, which focused most of its work on educating black teachers.

Inventor of the traffic light