women in physics

Five women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded annually since 1901 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.{{cite journal |last1=Tesh |first1=Sarah |last2=Wade |first2=Jess |author-link2=Jess Wade |year=2017 |title=Look happy dear, you've just made a discovery |journal=Physics World |volume=30 |issue=9 |pages=31–33 |bibcode=2017PhyW...30i..31T |doi=10.1088/2058-7058/30/9/35 |issn=0953-8585}} {{closed access}} These are:{{Cite web |title=Nobel Prize awarded women |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/nobel-prize-awarded-women |access-date=2023-10-12 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

• 1903 Marie Curie: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel" {{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-08}}
• 1963 Maria Goeppert Mayer: "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure" {{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1963/summary/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-08}}
• 2018 Donna Strickland: "for their method high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses" {{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/summary/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-08}}
• 2020 Andrea Ghez: "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/summary/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2021-03-09}}
• 2023 Anne L'Huillier "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter."{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2023/press-release/ |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

Marie Curie was the first woman to be nominated in 1902 and to receive the prize in 1903 and shared 1/2 of the prize with her husband Pierre Curie for their joint work on radioactivity, discovered by Henri Becquerel who got the other half of the prize. Marie Curie was the first woman to also receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, making her the first person to win two Nobel prizes and, as of 2023, the only person to be awarded two Nobel prizes in two different scientific categories.{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1911/marie-curie/facts/ |access-date=2019-03-08 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

Maria Goeppert Mayer became the second woman to win the prize in 1963, for the theoretical development of the nuclear shell model, a half of the prize shared with J. Hans D. Jensen (the other half given to Eugene Wigner). Donna Strickland shared half of the prize in 2018 with Gérard Mourou, for their work in chirped pulse amplification beginning in the 1980s (the other half given to Arthur Ashkin). Andrea Ghez was the fourth female Nobel laureate in 2020, she shared one half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel for the discovery of the supermassive compact object Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy (the other half given to Roger Penrose). In 2023, Anne L'Huillier shared the prize in equal parts with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz for their experimental contribution and development of attosecond physics. L'Huillier is the first female laureate to receive 1/3 of monetary award of the Nobel Prize in Physics (Curie, Goeppert–Mayer, Strickland and Ghez received 1/4).

Physicists and physicochemists that won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry include Marie Curie,{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Marie Curie |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=2051 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie Curie, in 1935,{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Irène Joliot-Curie |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=4615 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} and Dorothy Hodgkin in 1964.{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=10685 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} Nuclear physicist Rosalyn Sussman Yalow was the second female scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1977 for the development of radioimmunoassays.{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1977/yalow/facts/ |access-date=2023-09-04 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} Human right activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, Narges Mohammadi, was trained in nuclear physics.{{Cite news |last=Fassihi |first=Farnaz |date=2023-06-02 |title=She Lost Her Career, Family and Freedom. She's Still Fighting to Change Iran. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/world/middleeast/narges-mohammadi-iran-political-prisoner.html |access-date=2023-10-06 |issn=0362-4331}}

According to the Nobel archives (updated up to 1970), other physicists that were nominated to the Nobel Prize in Physics but did not receive it, include:

• Lise Meitner, nominated 21 times;{{Cite web |date=March 2025 |title=Nomination Archive – Lise Meitner |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=6097 |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}
• Chien-Shiung Wu, nominated 5 times;{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Chien-Shiung Wu |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=10859 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}
• Marietta Blau, nominated 3 times;{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Marietta Blau |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=1070 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}
• and Hertha Wambacher,{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Hertha Wambacher |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=9970 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} Margaret Burbidge{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Margaret Burbridge |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=13326 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} and Janine Connes, nominated once.{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive - Janine Connes |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=15500 |access-date=11 November 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

Irène Joliot-Curie and Dorothy Hodgkin were also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 and 1964, respectively. Lise Meitner is the female physicist the most nominated, 16 times for Physics and 14 times for Chemistry.{{Cite journal |date=2022 |title=Physics Nobel nominees, 1901–70 |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/5407 |journal=Physics Today |language=en |volume=2022 |issue=4 |pages=0929a |doi=10.1063/PT.6.4.20220929a|bibcode=2022PhT..2022d.929. |url-access=subscription }} About 1.7% of the Nobel nominations in Physics up to 1970 were women.

Aside from the named above, other physicists and physicochemists that were nominated to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry but dit not receive it, include Ida Noddack,{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Ida Noddack |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=6731 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} Marguerite Perey,{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Marguerite Perey |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7110 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} Alberte Pullman,{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Alberte Pullman |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=13060 |access-date=3 December 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} and Erika Cremer.{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Nomination Archive – Erika Cremer |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=14655 |access-date=11 November 2020 |website=NobelPrize.org}}

Up to 1970, eight female scientists have participated as nominators for the Nobel Prize in Physics. These are Marie Curie, Hertha Sponer, Marie-Antoinette Tonnelat, Anne Barbara Underhill, Katharina Boll-Dornberger, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Dorothy Hodgkin, and Margaret Burbidge.{{Cite web |last=Mehlin |first=Hans |date=2020-04-01 |title=Nomination%20archive |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/search.php?prize=1&startyear=1901&endyear=1971&cname=&ccity=&cuniversity=&ccountry=0&cgender=A&nname=&ncity=&nuniversity=&ncountry=0&ngender=F |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

Several women have been selected as Clarivate Citation laureates in Physics, which makes an annual list of possible candidates for the Nobel Prize in Physics based on citation statistics, these include:

• 2008 Vera Rubin {{dagger}} "for her pioneering research indicating the existence of dark matter in the universe."{{Cite press release |title=The Scientific Business of Thomson Reuters Predicts Nobel Laureates |via=PR Newswire APAC |url=https://en.prnasia.com/story/14242-0.shtml |access-date=2023-10-05 |language=en-us}}
• 2012 Lene Hau "for the experimental demonstration of electromagnetically induced transparency 'slow light' (with Stephen E. Harris)."{{Cite press release |publisher=Thomson Reuters |title=Thomson Reuters Predicts 2012 Nobel Laureates |url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thomson-reuters-predicts-2012-nobel-laureates-170285846.html |access-date=2023-10-05 |via=PR Newswire |language=en}}
• 2015 Deborah S. Jin {{dagger}} "for pioneering research on atomic gases at ultra-cold temperatures and the creation of the first fermionic condensate."{{Cite press release |publisher=Thomson Reuters |title=Thomson Reuters Forecasts Nobel Prize Winners |url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thomson-reuters-forecasts-nobel-prize-winners-300148161.html |access-date=2023-10-05 |via=PR Newswire |language=en}}
• 2018 Sandra Faber "for pioneering methods to determine the age, size and distance of galaxies and for other contributions to cosmology."[http://images.mail.discover.clarivate.com/Web/ClarivateAnalytics/%7Bea47a6bb-d7da-4680-ae07-f7ccb4f1b364%7D_Clarivate_Analytics_Citation_Laureates_2018_FIN_4.pdf Citation Laureates - Physics - 2018]
• 2023 Sharon Glotzer "for demonstrating the role of entropy in the self-assembly of matter and for introducing strategies to control the assembly process to engineer new materials."{{Cite web |title=Citation Laureates - Physics - 2023 |url=https://clarivate.com/citation-laureates/physics-2023/ |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=Clarivate |language=en}}

{{dagger}}: deceased, no longer eligible.

Two women have been awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics, awarded by the Wolf Foundation in Israel since 1978. They are:

• 1978 Chien-Shiung Wu, "for her explorations of the weak interaction, helping establish the precise form and the non-conservation of parity for this natural force."{{Cite web |date=2018-12-09 |title=Chien-Shiung Wu |url=https://wolffund.org.il/2018/12/09/chien-shiung-wu/ |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=Wolf Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-08-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830095053/https://wolffund.org.il/2018/12/09/chien-shiung-wu/ |url-status=dead }}
• 2022 Anne L'Huillier, "for pioneering contributions to ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics".[https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates Laureates 2022]

Women who have been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics since 2012, include:

• 2018 WMAP Probe team, 27 listed members, including Hiranya Peiris, Licia Verde, Janet L. Weiland and Joanna Dunkley for "For detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies."{{cite web |title=Breakthrough Prize – Laureates |url=https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1 |website=breakthroughprize.org}}
• 2018 Special recognition to Jocelyn Bell Burnell for "For fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community."{{cite web |title=Jocelyn Bell Burnell |url=https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1/L3830 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102030504/https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1/L3830 |archive-date=November 2, 2022 |access-date=November 2, 2022 |publisher=Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics}}

• L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards, awarded bi-annually to one laureate per continent for outstanding contributions to the physical sciences.
• Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of the American Physical Society awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to physics research.
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in UK, for contributions to physics by a very early career physicist.
• Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy awarded annually for outstanding contributions to astronomy within five years of earning a doctorate degree.

File:Noether.jpg who published the Noether's theorem in 1918. The theorem relates symmetries to conserved quantities in physics.]]

Female scientist have sometimes not been recognized in the naming of topics they discovered due to Matilda effect. Some physics phenomena that are named after female scientists include:

• Birge–Sponer method, in molecular physics, partially named after Hertha Sponer.
• Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou problem in chaos theory, partially named after Mary Tsingou.
• Frenkel–Kontorova model, in non-linear physics, partially named after {{ill|Tatiana Kontorova|ru|Конторова, Татьяна Абрамовна}}.
• Kovalevskaya top in rotational dynamics, named after Sofya Kovalevskaya.
• Pasterski–Strominger–Zhiboedov triangle in quantum gravity, is partially named after Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski.
• Peccei–Quinn theory in particle physics, partially named after Helen Quinn.
• Pöschl–Teller potential in quantum mechanics, partially named after Herta Pöschl.
• Randall–Sundrum model in theoretical physics, partially named after Lisa Randall.
• Falkner–Skan boundary layer in fluid mechanics, partially named after Sylvia Skan

• Faber–Jackson relation, in astronomomy, partially named after Sandra Faber.
• Goos–Hänchen effect in optics, partially named after Hilda Hänchen.
• Leavitt's law in astronomy, named after Henrietta Swan Leavitt.
• Pockels point in surface physics, named after Agnes Pockels.
• Rubin–Ford effect in cosmology, partially named after Vera Rubin.

• Bohr–Van Leeuwen theorem in thermodynamics, partially named after Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen
• Coffman–Kundu–Wootters inequality, in quantum information, partially named after Valerie Coffman
• Noether's theorem in modern physics, named after Emmy Noether

• Langmuir–Blodgett film, partially named after Katharine Burr Blodgett
• Curie (unit), Ci, partially named after Marie Curie
• Morton number (dimensionless number), Mo, used to characterize bubbles is named after Rose Morton
• Goeppert Mayer (unit), GM, unit of absorption cross section named after Maria Goeppert Mayer
• Wu experiment named after Chien-Shiung Wu

{{Prose|date=June 2023}}

• {{Circa|150 BCE}}: Aglaonice became the first female astronomer to be recorded in Ancient Greece.{{cite book |last=Ogilvie |first=Marilyn Bailey |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari |title=Women in Science |date=1986 |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-15031-6}}{{citation |last=Schmitz |first=Leonhard |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |date=1867 |volume=1 |page=59 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |access-date=2018-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616135039/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0068.html |url-status=dead |contribution=Aganice |contribution-url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0068.html |place=Boston |archive-date=2010-06-16 |title-link=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology}}
• c. 355–415 CE: Greek astronomer, mathematician and philosopher, Hypatia became renowned as a respected academic teacher, editor of Ptolemy's Almagest astronomical data, and head of her own science academy.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Hypatia |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hypatia |access-date=2018-08-29 |language=en}}

• 1572: astronomer Sophia Brahe assists her older brother Tycho Brahe finding a new bright object in the night sky, now known as called SN 1572 (a supernova).{{Cite web |title=Sophia Brahe {{!}} The Schools' Observatory |url=https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/learn/history/biographies/brahe |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=www.schoolsobservatory.org}} Sophia would help her brother in astronomy throughout his life.

• 1650: astronomer Maria Cunitz publishes Urania Propitia.{{Cite book |last=Wootton |first=David |title=The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution |date=2015 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |isbn=978-0-06-175952-9 |location=New York}}
• 1668: After separating from her husband, French polymath Marguerite de la Sablière established a popular salon in Paris. Scientists and scholars from different countries visited the salon regularly to discuss ideas and share knowledge, and Sablière studied physics, astronomy and natural history with her guests.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUCUAgAAQBAJ&q=Marguerite+de+la+Sabli%C3%A8re&pg=PT440 |title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century |last1=Ogilvie |first1=Marilyn |last2=Harvey |first2=Joy |author-link1=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |author-link2=Joy Harvey |date=2003-12-16 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135963439 |page=1142 |language=en}}
• 1680: Astronomer Jeanne Dumée published a summary of arguments supporting the Copernican theory of heliocentrism. She wrote "between the brain of a woman and that of a man there is no difference".{{cite book |last=Olsen |first=Kirstin |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313288036 |title=Chronology of Women's History |date=1994 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313288036 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313288036/page/81 81] |language=en |quote=Jeanne Dumée 1680. |url-access=registration}}
• 1690: astronomer Elisabeth Hevelius published Prodromus Astronomiae, compiling the star catalog of 1560 stars by her and her husband Johannes Hevelius.
• 1693–1698: German astronomer and illustrator Maria Clara Eimmart created more than 350 detailed drawings of the moon phases.{{cite book |last=Ley |first=Willy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xs7p6GNWFF8C&q=Maria+Clara+Eimmart+1693 |title=Watchers of the Skies |date=1969 |language=en}}

File:Emilie Chatelet portrait by Latour.jpg who wrote on the conservation of vis viva, an early version of the conservation of energy]]

• 1702: Maria Margaretha Kirch becomes the first woman to discover a comet.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-21 |title=Maria Kirch {{!}} German Astronomer & First Woman to Discover a Comet {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Kirch |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}
• 17010: Due to her various contribution Maria Margaretha Kirch ask to enter the Royal Berlin Academy of Sciences. The request was denied.
• 1715: Eustachio Manfredi and his sisters Maddalena and Teresa Manfredi publish Ephemerides of Celestial Motion. The learning of the Manfredi sisters was acknowledged by Pope Benedict XIV.{{Cite book |last1=Messbarger |first1=Rebecca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2yKkCwAAQBAJ&dq=maddalena+and+teresa+manfredi&pg=PA491 |title=Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality |last2=Johns |first2=Christopher M. S. |last3=Gavitt |first3=Philip |date=2017-01-11 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-2475-7 |pages=45; 48 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Bandiera |first=Giovanni Niccolò |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB5CAAAAcAAJ |title=Trattato Degli Studj Delle Donne: In Due Parti Diviso |date=1740 |publisher=Pitteri |pages=33 |language=it}}
• 1732: At the age of 20, Italian physicist Laura Bassi became the first female member of the Bologna Academy of Sciences. One month later, she publicly defended her academic theses and received a PhD. Bassi was awarded an honorary position as professor of physics at the University of Bologna. She was the first female physics professor in the world.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Laura-Bassi|title=Laura Bassi {{!}} Italian scientist|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-08-31|language=en}}
• 1738: French polymath Émilie du Châtelet became the first woman to have a paper published by the Paris Academy, following a contest on the nature of fire.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/women-pioneers-of-science/|title=Women Pioneers of Science|author=Yanes, Javier|publisher=OpenMind|date=7 March 2016|access-date=8 September 2018 }}
• 1740: Du Châtelet publishes Institutions de Physique, or Foundations of Physics, providing a metaphysical basis for Newtonian physics.{{Citation|last=Detlefsen|first=Karen|title=Émilie du Châtelet|date=2017|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/emilie-du-chatelet/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Winter 2017|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2018-09-01}}{{Cite book|title=Institutions de physique|author=Du Châtelet, Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil|date=1740|publisher=Chez Prault fils|oclc=807761077}}
• 1751: 19-year-old Italian physicist Cristina Roccati received her PhD from the University of Bologna.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttGgd6mec1MC&q=Cristina+Roccati&pg=PA320|title=The Sciences in Enlightened Europe|last1=Clark|first1=William|last2=Golinski|first2=Jan|last3=Schaffer|first3=Simon|date=1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226109404|pages=313–349|language=en}}
• 1755: Sculptor Jean-Jacques Caffieri makes a medallion of physicist Maria Angela Ardinghelli to be hung in French Academy of Sciences. The academy did not accept female members at the time. Ardinghelli worked as the main correspondent and translator between Paris and Naples in terms of physics discussions.{{Cite journal |last=Bertucci |first=Paola |date=2013 |title=The In/visible Woman: Mariangela Ardinghelli and the Circulation of Knowledge between Paris and Naples in the Eighteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670946 |journal=Isis |volume=104 |issue=2 |pages=226–249 |doi=10.1086/670946 |jstor=10.1086/670946 |pmid=23961687 |issn=0021-1753|url-access=subscription }}
• 1757: Nicole-Reine Lepaute works out the return of Halley's Comet, in collaboration with Alexis Clairaut and Jérôme Lalande.{{Cite book |last=Grier |first=David Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTcDAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |title=When Computers Were Human |date=2013-11-01 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4936-9 |language=en}}
• 1776: At the University of Bologna, Italian physicist Laura Bassi became the first woman appointed as chair of physics at a university.
• 1789: astronomer Louise du Pierry becomes the first female professor at the Sorbonne.{{Cite book |last=Ogilvie |first=Marilyn Bailey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6k5zd07FCCsC |title=Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century : a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography |date=1986 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-65038-0 |language=en}}
• 1798: Marie-Jeanne de Lalande and Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen are the only female astronomers in the first European congress of astronomers.{{Cite journal |last=Herrmann |first=Dieter B. |date=1970 |title=Das Astronomentreffen im Jahre 1798 auf dem Seeberg bei Gotha |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41133308 |journal=Archive for History of Exact Sciences |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=326–344 |doi=10.1007/BF00417623 |jstor=41133308 |issn=0003-9519|url-access=subscription }}

• 1806: Carl Friedrich Gauss recognizes Marie-Jeanne de Lalande as the only woman he knows working in science. Unaware that his correspondent Sophie Germain was a woman.{{Cite web |title=Amélie Harlay - Biography |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Harlay/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Maths History |language=en}}
• 1816: French mathematician and physicist Sophie Germain became the first women to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her work on elasticity theory.{{cite web|url=https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain.htm|title=Sophie Germain|author=Swift, Amanda|publisher=Agnes Scott College|date=July 2001|access-date=8 September 2018 }}
• 1828: Caroline Herschel, sister of William Herschel, becomes the first woman to publish in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and is awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Richard |title=The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science |year=2009 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-1-4000-3187-0}}
• 1835: Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville became the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society.{{EB1911|wstitle=Herschel, Caroline Lucretia|volume=13|page=391}}
• 1856: Amateur scientist Eunice Newton Foote provides the first demonstration of the warming effect of the sun is greater for air with water vapour than for dry air, and the effect is even greater with carbon dioxide (greenhouse effect).{{Cite web |last=Huddleston |first=Amara |date=July 17, 2019 |title=Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer |url=https://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/happy-200th-birthday-eunice-foote-hidden-climate-science-pioneer |website=climate.gov}}
• 1890: Alice Everett becomes the first woman to be employed and payed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.{{Cite web |title=Everett, Alice (1865–1949), astronomer and physicist |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-59852 |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2018 |language=en |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.59852 |last1=Higgitt |first1=Rebekah }}
• 1891: Agnes Pockels, gets help from Rayleigh to publish her first paper on nature of surface tension. There she first introduces the concept of the Pockels point and pioneers the field of surface science.{{Cite journal |last=Derrick |first=M. Elizabeth |date=1982 |title=Agnes Pockels, 1862-1935 |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed059p1030 |journal=Journal of Chemical Education |language=en |volume=59 |issue=12 |pages=1030 |doi=10.1021/ed059p1030 |bibcode=1982JChEd..59.1030D |issn=0021-9584|url-access=subscription }}
• 1893: Alice Everett becomes the first woman to have a paper published by the Physical Society of London.
• 1895: Margaret Eliza Maltby becomes the first woman to earn a doctorate in the University of Göttingen.
• 1896: Elizabeth Stephansen becomes the first woman to complete the physics program of Zurich Polytechnic.{{Cite web |title=Mileva Einstein-Marić |url=https://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/mileva-maric-einstein/ |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=www.fembio.org |language=en}}
• 1897: American physicist Isabelle Stone became the first woman to receive a PhD in physics in the United States. She wrote her dissertation "On the Electrical Resistance of Thin Films" at the University of Chicago.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&q=isabelle+stone+physics&pg=PA1241|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z|last1=Ogilvie|first1=Marilyn Bailey|last2=Harvey|first2=Joy Dorothy|date=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780415920407|page=1241|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J5_iXvkD6EC&q=isabelle+stone+physics&pg=PA168|title=Einstein's Generation: The Origins of the Relativity Revolution|last=Staley|first=Richard|date=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226770574|page=168|language=en}}
• 1898: Danish physicist Kirstine Meyer was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dpb1GaDPoq0C&q=%22Kirstine+Meyer%22+%22Gold+Medal%22&pg=PA122|title=Niels Bohr: Collected Works|date=2013-10-22|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780080466873|editor-last=Aaserud|editor-first=Finn|volume=12|page=122|language=en}}
• 1888: The Kovalevskaya top, one of a brief list of known examples of integrable rigid body motion, was discovered by Sofia Kovalevskaya.S. Kovalevskaya, Sur Le Probleme De La Rotation D'Un Corps Solide Autour D'Un Point Fixe, Acta Mathematica 12 (1889) 177–232.E. T. Whittaker, A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies, Cambridge University Press (1952).
• 1899: Irish physicist Edith Anne Stoney was appointed a physics lecturer at the London School of Medicine for Women, becoming the first woman medical physicist. She later became a pioneering figure in the use of x-ray machines on the front lines of World War I.{{Cite journal|last=Duck|first=Francis|date=December 2013|title=Edith Stoney MA, the first woman medical physicist|url=https://www.ipem.ac.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Publications/SCOPE/SCOPE_DEC2013_LR.pdf|journal=SCOPE|volume=22|issue=4|pages=49–54|access-date=2019-04-27|archive-date=2019-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328141849/https://www.ipem.ac.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Publications/SCOPE/SCOPE_DEC2013_LR.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• 1899: American physicists Marcia Keith and Isabelle Stone became charter members of the American Physical Society.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari|url-access=registration|quote=Marcia Keith physicist.|title=Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century : a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography|last=Ogilvie|first=Marilyn Bailey|date=1986|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262650380|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari/page/107 107]–108|language=en}}

File:Lise Meitner (1878-1968), lecturing at Catholic University, Washington, D.C., 1946.jpg]]

• 1903: Marie Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize; she received the Nobel Prize in Physics along with her husband, Pierre Curie "for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel", and Henri Becquerel, "for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity".{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/women.html|title=Nobel Laureates Facts - Women|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=2017-10-07}}{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/|title=Nobel Prize in Physics 1903|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=2008-10-16}}{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/index.html |access-date=2008-10-09}}{{Cite journal|last=Coleman|first=A. P.|date=1936|title=Polski Slownik Biograficzny|journal=Books Abroad|volume=10|issue=2|pages=167–168|doi=10.2307/40077307|issn=0006-7431|jstor=40077307}}
• 1900: Physicists Marie Curie and Isabelle Stone attended the first International Congress of Physics in Paris, France. They were the only two women out of 836 participants.
• 1904: Annie S. D. Maunder and her husband Edward Walter Maunder publish the butterfly diagram to study sunspots.{{Cite web |title=Annie Maunder, A Pioneer of Solar Astronomy {{!}} High Altitude Observatory |url=https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/news/news-article/annie-maunder-pioneer-solar-astronomy |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=www2.hao.ucar.edu}} They also identify the Maunder Minimum.
• 1906: English physicist, mathematician and engineer Hertha Ayrton became the first female recipient of the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society of London. She received the award for her experimental research on electric arcs and sand ripples.{{cite web|url=https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/ayrton.htm|title=Hertha Marks Ayrton|website=www.agnesscott.edu|access-date=2018-09-03}} The first woman to be nominated for the Royal Society and to give a lecture to the Society.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-22 |title=Hertha Marks Ayrton {{!}} Pioneering British Physicist & Mathematician {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hertha-Marks-Ayrton |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}
• 1907: Ayrton joins the Suffragettes and the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
• 1909: Danish physicist Kristine Meyer became the first Danish woman to receive a doctorate degree in natural sciences. She wrote her dissertation on the topic of "the development of the temperature concept" within the history of physics.

• 1911: Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which she received "[for] 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".{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/~invent/iow/leavitt.html|website=web.mit.edu|title=Lemelson-MIT Program|access-date=2018-08-20|archive-date=2004-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041104220952/http://web.mit.edu/~invent/iow/leavitt.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/index.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911|publisher=Nobelprize.org|access-date=2008-10-06}}{{cite web|url=https://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2011/09/beaverton_student_valerie_ding_to_compete_in_national_science_fair_competition.html|title=Beaverton student Valerie Ding to compete in national science fair competition|date=September 2011 |publisher=OregonLive.com|access-date=2018-08-20}} This made her the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes.{{cite web|url=https://kithub.cc/2016/11/marie-curie/ |title=Marie Curie – The First Woman To Win A Nobel Prize - KitHub |publisher=Kithub.cc |date=2019-02-05 |access-date=2019-04-27}}
• 1912: Astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt studied the bright-dim cycle periods of Cepheid stars, then found a way to calculate the distance from such stars to Earth.{{cite web |title=Lemelson-MIT Program |url=http://web.mit.edu/~invent/iow/leavitt.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222221234/http://web.mit.edu/~invent/iow/leavitt.html |archive-date=2014-02-22 |access-date=2018-08-20 |website=web.mit.edu}}
• 1913: Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz is the first to study of thermal noise in electric circuits, predating the discovery of the Johnson–Nyquist noise.{{Cite journal |last=Dörfel |first=G. |date=2012-08-15 |title=The early history of thermal noise: The long way to paradigm change |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/andp.201200736 |journal=Annalen der Physik |language=en |volume=524 |issue=8 |pages=117–121 |doi=10.1002/andp.201200736 |bibcode=2012AnP...524..117D |issn=0003-3804}}
• 1918: Emmy Noether created Noether's theorem explaining the connection between symmetry and conservation laws.{{Cite book|title=The Impact of Emmy Noether's Theorems on XXIst Century Physics in Teicher|last=Ne'eman|first=Yuval|publisher=Teicher|year=1999|pages=83–101}}
• 1919: Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen proves the Bohr–Van Leeuwen theorem in her thesis{{cite web |author=Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen |year=1919 |title=Vraagstukken uit de electronentheorie van het magnetisme |url=http://ilorentz.org/history/proefschriften/sources/vanLeeuwen_1919.pdf |language=Dutch}}{{cite journal |last=van Leeuwen |first=Hendrika Johanna |year=1921 |title=Problèmes de la théorie électronique du magnétisme |url=http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/jpa-00204299/en/ |journal=Journal de Physique et le Radium |volume=2 |issue=12 |pages=361–377 |doi=10.1051/jphysrad:01921002012036100|s2cid=97259591 }} explaining why magnetism is an essentially quantum mechanical effect.{{cite book |author1=Daniel D. Stancil |title=Spin Waves: Theory and Applications |author2=Anil Prabhakar |date=2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-77864-8 |page=16}}

File:Astronomer Edward Charles Pickering's Harvard computers.jpg famous team of women paid to handle astronomical data. This group included Annie Jump Cannon, who introduced the modern procedure for stellar classification, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who introduced the period-luminosity relation to calculate the distance of stars.]]

• 1922: the International Astronomical Union adopts the stellar classification used by Annie Jump Cannon. She came up with the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures and spectral types.{{Cite web |title=This Month in Physics History |url=http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202004/history.cfm |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=www.aps.org |language=en}}
• 1925: Annie Jump Cannon became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate of science from Oxford University.{{Cite news |date=18 April 1968 |title=Gal Astronomer |work=Rushville Republican |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10248206/ |access-date=13 April 2017 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• 1925: Astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin established that hydrogen is the most common element in stars, and thus the most abundant element in the universe.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cecilia-Payne-Gaposchkin|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin {{!}} American astronomer|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-10-08|language=en}}
• 1926: Katharine Burr Blodgett was the first women to earn a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge.{{Cite journal|title=Katharine Burr Blodgett|journal=Physics Today|language=en|volume=33|issue=3|pages=107|doi=10.1063/1.2913969|issn=0031-9228|year=1980|bibcode=1980PhT....33c.107.|doi-access=free}}
• 1926: The first application of quantum mechanics to molecular systems was done by Lucy Mensing. She studied the rotational spectrum of diatomic molecules using the methods of matrix mechanics.{{cite journal |last=Mensing |first=Lucy |title=Die Rotations-Schwingungsbanden nach der Quantenmechanik |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik |volume=36 |issue=11 |date=1926-11-01 |issn=0044-3328 |pages=814–823 |doi=10.1007/BF01400216|bibcode=1926ZPhy...36..814M |s2cid=123240532 |language=German }}

• 1931: Sylvia Skan and Victor Montague Falkner publish their work on the Falkner–Skan boundary layer.{{Cite book |last=Hager |first=Willi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6EF9BgAAQBAJ&dq=V.+M.+Falkner&pg=PA1583 |title=Hydraulicians in Europe 1800-2000: Volume 2 |date=2014-03-21 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-4665-5498-6 |language=en}}
• 1933: Herta Pöschl (abbreviated G. Pöschl) working with Edward Teller, find that the Pöschl–Teller potential is analytically solvable in quantum mechanics.{{Cite journal |last1=Libby |first1=Stephen B. |last2=Sessler |first2=Andrew M. |date=2010 |title=Edward Teller Biographical Memoir |url=http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789812838001_0003 |journal=Edward Teller Centennial Symposium |language=en |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC |pages=13–61 |doi=10.1142/9789812838001_0003 |bibcode=2010mpsl.conf...13L |osti=962810 |isbn=978-981-283-799-8}}
• 1934: Olga N. Trapeznikowa and his husband Lev Shubnikov finish an experiment showing one of the first evidences for the existence of antiferromagnetism.{{Cite journal |last=Kharchenko |first=N. F. |date=2005-08-01 |title=On seven decades of antiferromagnetism |url=https://pubs.aip.org/ltp/article/31/8/633/458580/On-seven-decades-of-antiferromagnetism |journal=Low Temperature Physics |language=en |volume=31 |issue=8 |pages=633–634 |doi=10.1063/1.2008126 |bibcode=2005LTP....31..633K |issn=1063-777X|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Sharma |first1=Hari Prasad |last2=Sen |first2=Subir K. |date=2006 |title=Shubnikov: A case of non-recognition in superconductivity research |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24093868 |journal=Current Science |volume=91 |issue=11 |pages=1576–1578 |jstor=24093868 |issn=0011-3891}}
• 1935: Katharine Burr Blodgett improves Irving Langmuir experimental set up leading to the development of the Langmuir–Blodgett trough and the discovery of the Langmuir–Blodgett films.
• 1935: Grete Hermann provides the earliest refutation to John von Neumann's attempt to prove that quantum mechanics is incompatible with hidden variables.{{cite book|first=Max |last=Jammer |author-link=Max Jammer |title=The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics |pages=265–274 |year=1974 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |isbn=0-471-43958-4}}{{Cite journal |last1=Mermin |first1=N. David |author-link1=N. David Mermin |last2=Schack |first2=Rüdiger |date=September 2018 |title=Homer Nodded: Von Neumann's Surprising Oversight |journal=Foundations of Physics |language=en |volume=48 |issue=9 |pages=1007–1020 |arxiv=1805.10311 |bibcode=2018FoPh...48.1007M |doi=10.1007/s10701-018-0197-5 |doi-access=free}}
• 1936: Hertha Sponer becomes the first female professor in the physics faculty in Duke University.{{Cite web |title=Hertha Sponer {{!}} Department of Physics |url=https://physics.duke.edu/about/history/historical-faculty/HerthaSponer |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=physics.duke.edu}}
• 1937: Marietta Blau and her student Hertha Wambacher, both Austrian physicists, received the Lieben Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for their work on cosmic ray observations using the technique of nuclear emulsions.{{cite web|last1=Dazinger|first1=Walter|title=Preisträger des Haitinger-Preises 1905-1936|url=http://www.i-l-g.at/texte/symposium/2004/Preistraeger.pdf|page=3|publisher=Die Ignaz-Lieben-Gesellschaft Verein zur Förderung der Wissenschaftsgeschichte|access-date=25 March 2016|location=Institut für Angewandte Synthesechemie, Vienna, Austria|language=de|date=27 January 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305121402/http://www.i-l-g.at/texte/symposium/2004/Preistraeger.pdf|archive-date=5 March 2016}}{{cite web |last1=Rentetzi |first1=Maria |title=Marietta Blau (1894-1970) |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/blau-marietta |website=JWA.org |publisher=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=23 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012181846/http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/blau-marietta |archive-date=12 October 2016 |location=Brookline, Massachusetts |date=1 March 2009}}
• 1938: Tatiana Kontorova, in collaboration with Yakov Frenkel, develops the Frenkel-Kontorova model to describe the structure and nonlinear dynamics of a crystal lattice in the vicinity of the dislocation core.{{Cite journal |last1=Braun |first1=Oleg M. |last2=Kivshar |first2=Yuri S. |date=1998-12-01 |title=Nonlinear dynamics of the Frenkel–Kontorova model |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0370157398000295 |journal=Physics Reports |volume=306 |issue=1 |pages=1–108 |doi=10.1016/S0370-1573(98)00029-5 |bibcode=1998PhR...306....1B |issn=0370-1573|url-access=subscription }}
• 1939
• Lise Meitner helped lead a small group of scientists who first discovered the nuclear fission of uranium when it absorbed an extra neutron.{{Cite journal|last1=Meitner|first1=Lise|last2=Frisch|first2=O. R.|title=Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=143|issue=3615|pages=239–240|doi=10.1038/143239a0|issn=0028-0836|year=1939|bibcode=1939Natur.143..239M|s2cid=4113262}}
• Nuclear physicist Marguerite Perey discovers francium.{{cite web|last=Science |first=Live |url=https://www.livescience.com/39582-what-is-francium.html |title=What is Francium? |publisher=Livescience.com |date=2013-09-11 |access-date=2018-08-20}}
• Sameera Moussa became the first woman to earn a doctorate in atomic radiation and the first woman to hold a teaching post in Cairo University.{{Cite journal |date=3 March 2017 |title=Sameera Moussa (1917–52) |url=https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.5.031428 |journal=Physics Today|issue=3 |page=9328 |doi=10.1063/PT.5.031428 |bibcode=2017PhT..2017c9328. |url-access=subscription }}

File:Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) in 1958.jpg that established the non conservation of parity symmetry in particle physics.]]

• c. 1940: Elizabeth Alexander and Ruby Payne-Scott become the first women to work in radio astronomy. Making important results on the study of radar signals coming from the sun.{{cite journal|last1=Lichtman|first1=Jeffery M.|title=Will the first Female Radio Astronomer Stand Up|journal=Journal of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers|date=1 August 2013|page=14|url=http://radio-astronomy.org/pdf/2013_aug_hi_res.pdf|access-date=4 January 2016}}
• 1941: Ruby Payne-Scott joined the Radio Physics Laboratory of the Australia Government's CSIRO; she was the first woman radio astronomer.{{Cite book|title=Under the radar : the first woman in radio astronomy, Ruby Payne-Scott|author=Goss, W. M.|date=2009|publisher=Springer|others=McGee, Richard X.|isbn=9783642031410|location=Heidelberg|oclc=567353180}}
• 1942: Chicago Pile-1 led by Enrico Fermi, the first nuclear reactor reaches criticality. Leona Woods was the only woman in the team and she was instrumental in the construction and then use of geiger counters for analysis during experimentation.
• 1943: the Manhattan project hires the Calutron Girls, a large group of young girls to monitor dials and watch meters for calutrons, mass spectrometers adapted for separation of uranium isotopes, unaware of the purpose of the project.{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Nancy |date=2020-04-30 |title=Girl Power, Circa 1940: Building The Bomb (and Not Knowing It) in East Tennessee |url=https://blueridgecountry.com/api/content/d8e9c7a0-8b12-11ea-a8a0-12a744e55e25/ |access-date=2023-09-04 |website=Blue Ridge Country |language=en-us}}
• 1943: Berta Karlik discovers astatine as a product of two naturally occurring decay chains.{{Cite journal |last1=Karlik |first1=Berta |last2=Bernert |first2=Traude |date=June 1943 |title=Eine neue natürliche α-Strahlung |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF01475613 |journal=Die Naturwissenschaften |language=de |volume=31 |issue=25–26 |pages=298–299 |doi=10.1007/BF01475613 |bibcode=1943NW.....31..298K |issn=0028-1042|url-access=subscription }} She was awarded the Haitinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for this discovery.{{cite web|title=Berta Karlik|url=http://lise.univie.ac.at/physikerinnen/historisch/berta-karlik.htm|publisher=Universität Wien Projekt Lise|access-date=10 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408011126/https://lise.univie.ac.at/physikerinnen/historisch/berta-karlik.htm|archive-date=8 April 2017|location=Vienna, Austria|language=de|date=2010}}
• 1944: Curium (atomic number 96, symbol Cm) gets discovered a gets named after Marie and Pierre Curie, the "m" in Cm as a reference to Marie.{{Cite web |title=96. Curium - Elementymology & Elements Multidict |url=https://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=cm |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=elements.vanderkrogt.net}}
• 1945: American physicists and mathematicians Frances Spence, Ruth Teitelbaum, Marlyn Meltzer, Betty Holberton, Jean Bartik and Kathleen Antonelli programmed the electronic general-purpose computer ENIAC, becoming some of the world's first computer programmers.{{Cite news|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/53160/meet-refrigerator-ladies-who-programmed-eniac|title=Meet the 'Refrigerator Ladies' Who Programmed the ENIAC|last=Sheppard|first=Alyson|date=2013-10-13|work=Mental Floss|access-date=2018-10-09|language=en}}
• 1947: Hilda Hänchen, in collaboration with Fritz Goos, demonstrates a new optical phenomena, now known as the Goos–Hänchen effect.{{Cite journal |last=Berman |first=Paul R. |date=2012-03-12 |title=Goos-Hänchen effect |journal=Scholarpedia |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=11584 |doi=10.4249/scholarpedia.11584 |issn=1941-6016 |doi-access=free }}
• 1949: Rosemary Brown (later Fowler), a student of C.F. Powell at the University of Bristol, discovers the k-meson in what Heisenberg calls "most beautiful" pictures of cosmic ray tracks from the Jungfraujoch (the 'k' track in Brown, R. et al. Nature, 163, 47 (1949). This discovery and the prior finding of a very similar particle in 1947 led to the "τ–θ puzzle", the discovery of parity violation in weak interactions, and hence the Standard Model.

• 1951: Cécile DeWitt-Morette founds the École de physique des Houches, one of the most prestigious scientific centers for international physics summer schools in Europe.{{Cite journal |last=Verschueren |first=Pierre |date=December 2019 |title=Cécile Morette and the Les Houches summer school for theoretical physics; or, how Girl Scouts, the 1944 Caen bombing and a marriage proposal helped rebuild French physics (1951–1972) |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/cecile-morette-and-the-les-houches-summer-school-for-theoretical-physics-or-how-girl-scouts-the-1944-caen-bombing-and-a-marriage-proposal-helped-rebuild-french-physics-19511972/2A382DBF00E68CB293406AD8AFE9EAAE |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=595–616 |doi=10.1017/S0007087419000505 |pmid=31530328 |issn=0007-0874}}
• 1952: Photograph 51, an X-ray diffraction image of crystallized DNA, was taken by Raymond Gosling in May 1952, working as a PhD student under the supervision of British chemist and biophysicist Rosalind Franklin;{{cite journal |title=Due credit |journal=Nature |volume=496 |issue=7445 |page=270 |date=18 April 2013 |doi=10.1038/496270a|pmid=23607133 |doi-access=free }}{{cite web |url=http://kingscollections.org/exhibitions/archives/dna/key-discoveries/momentum/ |title=DNA: the King's story }}{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/ |title=Secret of Photo 51. Nova | publisher=PBS }}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/genehistoricalpe0000ever |url-access=registration |quote=PHOTO 51 rosalind franklin. |title=The gene: a historical perspective |page=[https://archive.org/details/genehistoricalpe0000ever/page/85 85] |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2007 |isbn=9780313334498 }} it was critical evidence{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/anat-flash.html |title=Anatomy of Photo 51 |last=Krock |first=Lexi |website=NOVA online |publisher=PBS |date=22 April 2003 }} in identifying the structure of DNA.{{cite journal |first1=James D. |last1=Watson |author-link1=James D. Watson |first2=Francis |last2=Crick |author-link2=Francis Crick |year=1953 |title=A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid |journal=Nature |volume=171 |pages=737–738 |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030403052855/http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-04-03 |doi=10.1038/171737a0 |pmid=13054692 |issue=4356|bibcode=1953Natur.171..737W |s2cid=4253007 }}
• 1952: Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat proves that Einstein field equations can be formulated as an initial value problem (local existence of solutions and uniqueness).{{Cite web |title=Focus issue: Milestones of general relativity - Classical and Quantum Gravity - IOPscience |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0264-9381/page/Focus%20issue%20on%20Milestones%20of%20general%20relativity |access-date=2024-08-22 |website=iopscience.iop.org}}
• 1953: Various authors, including Arianna W. Rosenbluth and Augusta H. Teller, led by Nicholas Metropolis, write the paper titled "Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines" that introduced the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm.{{Cite journal |last1=Metropolis |first1=Nicholas |last2=Rosenbluth |first2=Arianna W. |last3=Rosenbluth |first3=Marshall N. |last4=Teller |first4=Augusta H. |last5=Teller |first5=Edward |date=1953-06-01 |title=Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines |url=https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1699114 |journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics |volume=21 |issue=6 |pages=1087–1092 |doi=10.1063/1.1699114 |bibcode=1953JChPh..21.1087M |osti=4390578 |issn=0021-9606}}
• 1953: Rose Morton and William L. Haberman identify a constant to characterize bubbles. The constant is now called the Morton number.{{Cite journal |last1=Pfister |first1=Michael |last2=Hager |first2=Willi H. |date=2014-05-01 |title=History and Significance of the Morton Number in Hydraulic Engineering |url=https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000870 |journal=Journal of Hydraulic Engineering |language=EN |volume=140 |issue=5 |pages=02514001 |doi=10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000870 |issn=1943-7900}}
• 1954: Janine Connes pioneers the new field of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for astronomy.
• 1954: Sulamith Goldhaber, along with her husband Gerson Goldhaber, start a series of important experiments to measure the properties of the K meson.{{Cite web |title=Sulamith Goldhaber (1923-1965) |url=http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/articles/goldhaber/tribute.html |access-date=2023-09-03 |website=cwp.library.ucla.edu}}
• 1955: the results of the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou simulation is published in Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was coded by Mary Tsingou using the MANIAC I computer working with Enrico Fermi, John Pasta, and Stanislaw Ulam in the Manhattan Project. It represents one of the first computational experiments in mathematics and chaos theory.{{Cite web |last=Grant |first=Virginia |date=2020 |title="We thank Miss Mary Tsingou" {{!}} Discover Los Alamos National Laboratory} |url=https://discover.lanl.gov/publications/national-security-science/2020-winter/we-thank-miss-mary-tsingou/ |access-date=2023-09-04 |website=Los Alamos National Laboratory |language=en}}
• 1956: Chinese-American physicist Chien-Shiung Wu conducted a nuclear physics experiment in collaboration with the Low Temperature Group of the US National Bureau of Standards.{{cite journal

|last1=Wu

|first1=C. S.

|last2=Ambler

|first2=E.

|last3=Hayward

|first3=R. W.

|last4=Hoppes

|first4=D. D.

|last5=Hudson

|first5=R. P.

|year=1957

|title=Experimental Test of Parity Conservation in Beta Decay

|journal=Physical Review

|volume=105

|issue=4

|pages=1413–1415

|bibcode=1957PhRv..105.1413W

|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.105.1413

|doi-access=free

}} The experiment, becoming known as the Wu experiment, showed that parity could be violated in weak interaction.{{cite book|author=Eberhard Zeidler|title=Quantum Field Theory III: Gauge Theory: A Bridge between Mathematicians and Physicists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=miwuxaEXvOsC&pg=PA196|date=17 August 2011|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-22421-8|pages=196–}}

• 1957: Margaret Burbidge releases the landmark B2FH paper as first author along with Geoffrey Burbidge, William A. Fowler, and Fred Hoyle. The paper reviewed stellar nucleosynthesis theory and identified nucleosynthesis processes that are responsible for producing the elements heavier than iron and explained their relative abundances.
• 1958: Olga Ladyzhenskaya provides the first rigorous proofs of the convergence of a finite difference method for the Navier–Stokes equations.{{cite journal |last=Ладыженская |first=О. А. |author-link=Olga Ladyzhenskaya |year=1958 |title=Решение "в целом" краевой задачи для уравнений Навье – Стокса в случае двух пространственных переменных |journal=Доклады Академии наук СССР |volume=123 |issue=3 |pages=427–429}} [{{cite journal |last=Ladyzhensakya |first=O. A. |author-link=Olga Ladyzhenskaya |year=1958 |title=Solution in the large to the boundary-value problem for the Navier–Stokes equations in two space variables |journal=Soviet Physics Dokl. |volume=123 |issue=3 |pages=1128–1131 |bibcode=1960SPhD....4.1128L}}
• 1960: American medical physicist Rosalyn Yalow received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones" along with Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally who received it "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain".{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977 |url=http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1977/index.html |access-date=2007-07-28 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}

• 1961: Ellen Fetter and Margaret Hamilton were collaborators with Edward Norton Lorenz in weather forecasting, establishing together modern chaos theory.{{Cite web |last=Sokol |first=Joshua |date=May 20, 2019 |title=The Hidden Heroines of Chaos |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-heroines-of-chaos-20190520/ |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=Quanta Magazine}}{{cite journal |author=Lorenz, Edward N. |year=1963 |title=Deterministic non-periodic flow |journal=Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=130–141 |bibcode=1963JAtS...20..130L |doi=10.1175/1520-0469(1963)020<0130:DNF>2.0.CO;2 |doi-access=free}}
• 1962: French physicist Marguerite Perey became the first female Fellow elected to the Académie des Sciences.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJLl47ZFziQC&q=marguerite+perey+Acad%C3%A9mie+des+Sciences&pg=PT249|title=European Women in Chemistry|last1=Apotheker|first1=Jan|last2=Sarkadi|first2=Livia Simon|date=2011-04-27|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9783527636464|language=en}}
• 1963: Maria Goeppert Mayer became the first American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics; she shared the prize with J. Hans D. Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure” and Eugene Paul Wigner "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles".{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/index.html |access-date=2008-10-09}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963 |publisher=Nobelprize.org |access-date=2013-09-06}}{{cite book|author=Des Julie|title=The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HULGDNDSenYC&pg=PA163|year=2010|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-655-4|page=163}}
• 1963: Experiments by Myriam Sarachik provided the first data that confirmed the Kondo effect.{{Cite news |last=Chang |first=Kenneth |date=August 31, 2020 |title=Myriam Sarachik Never Gave Up on Physics |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/science/myriam-sarachik-physics.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831164630/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/science/myriam-sarachik-physics.html |archive-date=August 31, 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}
• 1964: Chien-Shiung Wu spoke at MIT about gender discrimination.{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of scientific biography|date=1971 |editor=Gillispie, Charles Coulston|isbn=0684101149|location=New York|oclc=89822}}
• 1967: Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell co-discovered the first radio pulsars.{{cite web| title = Cosmic Search Vol. 1, No. 1 – Little Green Men, White Dwarfs or Pulsars?

| url = http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/burnell.htm

| ref = {{harvid|Cosmic Search Vol. 1}}

}}The New York Times Almost Famous: Featuring: Jocelyn Bell Burnell [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDW9zKqvPJI (2021) I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize for It.] 16:16{{rp|minute 8:59}}

• 1970: Astronomer Vera Rubin published the first evidence for dark matter.{{cite journal |last1=Rubin |first1=Vera |last2=Ford, Jr. |first2=W. Kent |date=February 1970 |title=Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a Spectroscopic Survey of Emission Regions |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=159 |pages=379–403 |bibcode=1970ApJ...159..379R |doi=10.1086/150317 |s2cid=122756867}}
• 1970: {{ill|Madeleine Veyssié|fr}}, coins the term soft matter.{{Cite web |title=Soft matter physics |url=https://www.iop.org/explore-physics/big-ideas-physics/soft-matter-physics |access-date=October 10, 2023 |website=Institute of Physics}}

File:Jocelyn Bell Burnell-1.jpg known for the discovery of radio pulsars]]

• 1971 Mina Rees became the first woman president of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) founded in 1848.{{Cite web|title=Women's History Infographic|url=https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/Memb_2019-WomensHistory_Infographic_FINAL.pdf|website=AAAS}}
• 1972: Willie Hobbs Moore became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics.
• 1972: Sandra Faber became the first woman to join the Lick Observatory staff at the University of California, Santa Cruz.{{Cite journal|title=The 2009 Bower Award in Science presented to Sandra Faber|journal=Journal of the Franklin Institute|volume=348|issue=3|pages=510–516|doi=10.1016/j.jfranklin.2010.02.011|issn=0016-0032|year=2011}}
• 1973: American physicist Anna Coble became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in biophysics, completing her dissertation at University of Illinois.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_7WSzRAU_rUC&q=Anna+Coble+biophysicist&pg=PA61|title=Sisters in Science: Conversations with Black Women Scientists about Race, Gender, and Their Passion for Science|last=Jordan|first=Diann|date=2006|publisher=Purdue University Press|isbn=9781557534453|pages=61–72|language=en}}
• 1975: Mary K. Gaillard, working with Benjamin W. Lee and Jonathan L. Rosner, predicts the mass of the charm quark before it was measured. She will later also predict the mass of the bottom quark.{{Cite journal |last=Gibson |first=Val |date=2015 |title=Physics: She did it all |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=524 |issue=7564 |pages=160 |doi=10.1038/524160a |s2cid=4389262 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free |bibcode=2015Natur.524..160G }}
• 1975: María Teresa Ruiz, becomes the first woman to obtain a PhD in astrophysics at Princeton University.{{Cite web |title=Prof. Maria Ruiz, Princeton PhD '75, honored with Loreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award {{!}} Department of Astrophysical Sciences |url=https://web.astro.princeton.edu/news/prof-maria-ruiz-princeton-phd-75-honored-loreal-unesco-women-science-award |access-date=2020-06-20 |website=web.astro.princeton.edu}}
• 1976: Sandra Faber publishes her Faber–Jackson relation, providing the first empirical power-law relation between the luminosity and the central stellar velocity dispersion  of elliptical galaxy.
• 1977: Helen Quinn develops the Peccei–Quinn theory as one of the first possible solutions to the strong CP problem, in collaboration with Roberto Peccei.{{cite journal |author1=Peccei, R.D. |author-link1=Roberto Peccei |author2=Quinn, H.R. |author-link2=Helen Quinn |date=20 June 1977 |title=CP Conservation in the Presence of Pseudoparticles |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248549883 |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=38 |issue=25 |pages=1440–1443 |bibcode=1977PhRvL..38.1440P |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.38.1440}}{{cite journal |author1=Peccei, R.D. |author-link1=Roberto Peccei |last2=Quinn, H.R. |author-link2=Helen Quinn |date=15 September 1977 |title=Constraints imposed by CP conservation in the presence of pseudoparticles |journal=Physical Review D |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=1791–1797 |bibcode=1977PhRvD..16.1791P |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.16.1791}}
• 1978: Chien-Shiung Wu becomes the inaugural laureate of the Wolf Prize in Physics for her help with the development of the Standard Model.
• 1980: Nigerian geophysicist Deborah Ajakaiye became the first woman in any West African country to be appointed a full professor of physics.{{Cite book |last=Yount |first=Lisa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=428i2UdWRRAC&q=Deborah+Ajakaiye&pg=PA2 |title=A to Z of Women in Science and Math |date=2007 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438107950 |pages=2–3 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2018-05-27 |title=Prominent Nigerian Women Who Excel In Science And Research {{!}} Alternative Africa |language=en-US |work=Alternative Africa |url=https://alternativeafrica.com/2018/05/27/list-of-prominent-nigerian-women-that-excel-in-science-and-research/ |access-date=2018-08-25 |archive-date=2018-08-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826113356/https://alternativeafrica.com/2018/05/27/list-of-prominent-nigerian-women-that-excel-in-science-and-research/ |url-status=dead }} Over the course of her scientific career, she became the first female Fellow elected to the Nigerian Academy of Science, and the first female dean of science in Nigeria.{{Cite book |last=Oakes |first=Elizabeth H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPRB-OED1bcC&q=Deborah+Ajakaiye&pg=PA8 |title=Encyclopedia of World Scientists |date=2007 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438118826 |pages=8–9 |language=en}}
• 1980: Mary K. Gaillard produces a report at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) addressing the fact that just 3% of the staff were women. She called for the elimination of gender discrimination through equality in promotion, maternity leave and full-day child care.

• 1981: Mary K. Gaillard becomes the first woman with a tenured position in the physics faculty at the University of California, Berkeley.
• 1985: Mildred Dresselhaus was appointed the first women Institute Professor at MIT{{Cite journal|last=Cho|first=Adrian|date=2015-12-11|title=U.S. Senate confirms new DOE science chief|journal=Science|doi=10.1126/science.aad1645|issn=0036-8075|doi-access=free}}
• 1986: Maria Goeppert Mayer Award was awarded for the first time to honor young female physicists at the beginning of their careers{{Cite book|title=Mayer, Maria Gertrude Goeppert (1906-1972), physicist|last=Wang|first=Zuoyue|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|series=American National Biography Online|doi = 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1301078}}
• 1986 Jean M. Bennett became the first woman president of The Optical Society founded in 1916.{{Cite web|title=Biographies: Jean M. Bennett|url=https://www.osa.org/en-us/history/biographies/bios/jean-m--bennett/|website=The Optical Society}}

• 1991: Ana María López, graduate student of Eduardo Fradkin, develops the first Chern–Simons theory for composite fermions to explain the fractional quantum Hall effect.{{Cite journal |last1=Stainforth |first1=David A. |last2=Calel |first2=Raphael |date=2020-08-13 |title=New priorities for climate science and climate economics in the 2020s |url=https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16624-8 |journal=Nature Communications |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=3864 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-16624-8 |pmid=32792534 |issn=2041-1723|pmc=7426411 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.3864S }}
• 1992: Claudine Hermann first woman to be appointed professor at École Polytechnique.
• 1995: Reva Williams works out the Penrose process for rotating black holes.
• 1997: Chemical element with atomic number 278 is officially named meitnerium, after Lise Meitner.{{Cite journal |date=1997-01-01 |title=Names and symbols of transfermium elements (IUPAC Recommendations 1997) |journal=Pure and Applied Chemistry |language=en |volume=69 |issue=12 |pages=2471–2474 |doi=10.1351/pac199769122471 |issn=1365-3075|doi-access=free }}
• 1999: Lisa Randall published the Randall–Sundrum model, with Raman Sundrum.{{cite journal |last=Randall |first=Lisa |author2=Sundrum, Raman |date=1999 |title=Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=83 |issue=17 |pages=3370–3373 |arxiv=hep-ph/9905221 |bibcode=1999PhRvL..83.3370R |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3370}}
• 2000
• Mildred Dresselhaus became the director of the Office of Science at the United States Department of Energy.
• Helen Quinn becomes the first woman to receive the Dirac Medal of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) "pioneering contributions to the quest for a unified theory of quarks and leptons and the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions."{{Cite web |date=2000-08-09 |title=Dirac medal goes to particle theorists |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/dirac-medal-goes-to-particle-theorists/ |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Physics World |language=en-GB}}
• Valerie Coffman, working with Joydip Kundu and William Wootters establish the concept of monogamy of entanglement for tripartite systems, using their Coffman–Kundu–Wooters inequality.{{Cite book |last1=Bertlmann |first1=Reinhold |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzHaEAAAQBAJ&dq=valerie+coffman&pg=PA511 |title=Modern Quantum Theory: From Quantum Mechanics to Entanglement and Quantum Information |last2=Friis |first2=Nicolai |date=2023-10-05 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-150634-5 |language=en}}

• 2001: Lene Hau stopped a beam of light completely{{cite web|url=https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Light_Changed_to_Matter_Then_Stopped_and_Moved/a28520|title=Light Changed to Matter, Then Stopped and Moved|website=www.photonics.com|access-date=2019-04-02}}
• 2001: Wendy Freedman and her team published the measured Hubble constant from measurements of the Hubble Space Telescope.{{Cite web |date=2019-07-16 |title=New measure of Hubble constant adds to mystery about universe's expansion rate {{!}} University of Chicago News |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/new-measure-hubble-constant-adds-mystery-about-universes-expansion-rate |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=news.uchicago.edu |language=en}}
• 2003:
• Geophysicist Claudia Alexander oversaw the final stages of Project Galileo, a space exploration mission that ended at the planet Jupiter.{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-0719-claudia-alexander-20150718-story.html|title=Claudia Alexander dies at 56; JPL researcher oversaw Galileo, Rosetta missions - Los Angeles Times|last=Woo|first=Elaine|website=Los Angeles Times|date=18 July 2015 |access-date=2018-09-25}}
• Deborah S. Jin and her team were the first to condense pairs of fermionic atoms{{cite web|url=https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/12feb_fermi/|title=A New Form of Matter: II {{!}} Science Mission Directorate|website=science.nasa.gov|access-date=2019-04-02|archive-date=2019-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402130901/https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/12feb_fermi|url-status=dead}}
• Physicists Ayşe Erzan, Karimat El-Sayed, Li Fanghua, Mariana Weissmann and Anneke Levelt Sengers win the first L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards in Physical Sciences.{{Cite web |title=Landmark Year For L'Oréal-Unesco "For Women In Science" Award |url=https://www.loreal.com/en/press-release/foundation/landmark-year-for-loralunesco-for-women-in-science-award/ |access-date=2023-08-29 |website=www.loreal.com}}
• 2005: Myriam Sarachik becomes the first woman to win the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize for her contributions to quantum spin dynamics and spin coherence in condensed matter systems, along with David Awschalom and Gabriel Aeppli.{{Cite web |title=2020 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research Awarded to Myriam P. Sarachik |url=http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201908/medal-sarachik.cfm |access-date=October 14, 2021 |website=www.aps.org |language=en}}
• 2007: Physicist Ibtesam Badhrees was the first Saudi Arabian woman to become a member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).{{Cite journal|date=2007-03-01|title=Faces and places|url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1734040|journal=CERN Courier|language=en|volume=47}}
• 2009: Margaret Reid becomes the first woman to win the Moyal Medal fromm Macquarie University, for her In 2019, her work on how to demonstrate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox using squeezing and parametric down conversion.{{Cite web |title=Physics - Margaret D. Reid |url=https://physics.aps.org/authors/margaret_d_reid |access-date=2023-09-04 |website=physics.aps.org |language=en}}

File:Deborah S. Jin.jpg

• 2011: Taiwanese-American astrophysicist Chung-Pei Ma led a team of scientists in discovering two of the largest black holes ever observed.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/12/10/143497216/newly-discovered-black-holes-are-largest-so-far|title=Newly Discovered Black Holes Are Largest So Far|work=NPR.org|access-date=2018-10-08|language=en}}
• 2012: Mildred Dresselhaus becomes the first female laureate of the Kavli Prize in Nanosciences "for her pioneering contributions to the study of phonons, electron-phonon interactions, and thermal transport in nanostructures".{{Cite web |title=The 2012 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience |url=https://www.kavliprize.org/prizes/nanoscience/2012 |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=www.kavliprize.org}}
• 2013: Nashwa Eassa founded the NGO Sudanese Women in Sciences.
• 2014: American theoretical physicist Shirley Anne Jackson was awarded the National Medal of Science. Jackson had been the first African-American woman to receive a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during the early 1970s, and the first woman to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalmedals.org/laureates/shirley-ann-jackson|title=Shirley Anne Jackson - National Medal of Science, Physical Sciences, 2014|website=National Science and Technology Medals Foundation}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609692/the-remarkable-career-of-shirley-ann-jackson/|title=A cool-headed leader in social justice, nuclear policy, and academia|last=Schaffer|first=Amanda|work=MIT Technology Review|access-date=2018-09-24|language=en}}
• 2014: Amanda Barnard becomes the first woman to win the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for her computational simulations on diamond nanoparticles.{{cite web |last=Lehmann |first=Emily |date=23 April 2015 |title=Nanotech prize: No small win for Australia and women in science |url=http://csironewsblog.com/tag/feynman-prize/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150519105239/http://csironewsblog.com/tag/feynman-prize/ |archive-date=2015-05-19 |access-date=2015-04-23 |work=CSIRO's news blog}}
• 2015: Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, working with Andrew Strominger and Alexander Zhiboedov, develops the Pasterski–Strominger–Zhiboedov triangle relating soft particle theorems of quantum field theory, symmetries of space-time and memory effects in gravitational waves.{{Cite journal |last=Pasterski |first=Sabrina |date=2017-09-28 |title=Asymptotic symmetries and electromagnetic memory |journal=Journal of High Energy Physics |language=en |volume=2017 |issue=9 |pages=154 |doi=10.1007/JHEP09(2017)154 |issn=1029-8479|doi-access=free |arxiv=1505.00716 |bibcode=2017JHEP...09..154P }}
• 2016: Fabiola Gianotti became the first woman Director-General of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research){{Cite journal|last=Castelvecchi|first=Davide|date=2014|title=Higgs hunter will be CERN's first female director: Italian physicist Fabiola Gianotti will take the reins at the European physics powerhouse in 2016|url=https://www.nature.com/news/higgs-hunter-will-be-cern-s-first-female-director-1.16287|journal=Nature|doi=10.1038/nature.2014.16287|s2cid=124442791|doi-access=free|url-access=subscription}}
• 2018:
• Astrophysicists Hiranya Peiris and Joanna Dunkley and Italian cosmologist Licia Verde were among 27 scientists awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to "detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies".{{cite web|url=https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1/L3811|title=Breakthrough Prize – Fundamental Physics - Breakthrough Prize Laureates – Norman Jarosik and the WMAP Science Team|website=breakthroughprize.org|language=en|access-date=2018-08-28}}
• Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell received the special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her scientific achievements and “inspiring leadership”, worth $3 million. She donated the entirety of the prize money towards the creation of scholarships to assist women, underrepresented minorities and refugees who are pursuing the study of physics.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/09/08/she-made-discovery-man-got-nobel-half-century-later-shes-won-million-prize/|title=She made the discovery, but a man got the Nobel. A half-century later, she's won a $3 million prize.|last1=Kaplan|first1=Sarah|last2=Farzan|first2=Antonia Noori|date=September 8, 2018|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en|access-date=2018-09-13}}
• Physicist Donna Strickland received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics"; she shared it with Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou.{{cite web | title = The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 | publisher = Nobel Foundation | url = https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/press-release/|access-date=2 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.cap.ca/publications/cap-news/2018-nobel-prize-physics/ |title=News Flash: Canadian physicist, Donna Strickland, co-recipient of 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics - Canadian Association of Physicists |publisher=Cap.ca |access-date=2018-10-04}}
• For the first time in history, women received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Nobel Prize in Physics in the same year.{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/03/women-win-nobel-prize-chemistry-physics-first-time-same-year/1516518002/ |title=Women win Nobel Prize in chemistry, physics for first time same year |publisher=Usatoday.com |access-date=2018-10-08}}
• Human right activist and physicist Narges Mohammadi wins the Andrei Sakharov prize by the American Physical Society, "for her leadership in campaigning for peace, justice, and the abolition of the death penalty and for her unwavering efforts to promote the human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people, despite persecution that has forced her to suspend her scientific pursuits and endure lengthy incarceration."{{Cite web |date=2018 |title=2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize Recipient |url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=American Physical Society |language=en}}
• Ewine van Dishoeck becomes the first female laureate of the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for "for her combined contributions to observational, theoretical, and laboratory astrochemistry, elucidating the life cycle of interstellar clouds and the formation of stars and planets"{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=31 May 2018 |title=2018 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics {{!}} www.kavliprize.org |language=en |work=Kavil Prize |url=http://kavliprize.org/prizes-and-laureates/prizes/2018-kavli-prize-astrophysics |access-date=31 May 2018}}{{Cite news |date=31 May 2018 |title=Jennifer Doudna shares 2018 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience |language=en-US |work=Berkeley News |url=http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/05/31/jennifer-doudna-shares-2018-kavli-prize-in-nanoscience/ |access-date=31 May 2018}}
• 2019: Mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck became the first woman to win the Abel Prize for "her pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory, and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics."{{cite web |title=Citation by the Abel Prize Committee |url=http://www.abelprize.no/c73996/binfil/download.php?tid=74095 |publisher=The Abel Prize |access-date=March 19, 2019 |archive-date=June 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612182916/https://www.abelprize.no/c73996/binfil/download.php?tid=74095 |url-status=dead }}
• 2020:
• Andrea M. Ghez received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy." She shared half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel, while the other half was awarded to Roger Penrose.{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/press-release/ |access-date=9 March 2021 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}
• Geoscientist Ingeborg Levin was the first woman to receive the Alfred Wegener medal from the European Geosciences Union "for fundamental contributions to our present knowledge and understanding of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including the global carbon cycle."{{Cite web |title=Ingeborg Levin |url=https://www.egu.eu/awards-medals/alfred-wegener/2020/ingeborg-levin/ |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=European Geosciences Union (EGU) |language=en}}
• Françoise Combes becomes the first female astrophysicist to win the CNRS Gold Medal, highest degree in research by the French government.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-25 |title=Françoise Combes, première femme astrophysicienne médaillée d'or du CNRS |url=https://sciences.sorbonne-universite.fr/actualites/francoise-combes-premiere-femme-astrophysicienne-medaillee-dor-du-cnrs |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=Sorbonne Université |language=fr}}

• 2022: Anne L’Huillier becomes the second female scientist to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics “for pioneering contributions to ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics”.{{cite web| title = Anne L'Huillier - Wolf Foundation| publisher = Wolf Foundation| url = https://wolffund.org.il/2022/02/08/anne-lhuillier/| access-date = 18 October 2022| archive-date = 8 February 2022| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220208173351/https://wolffund.org.il/2022/02/08/anne-lhuillier/| url-status = dead}}
• 2022: Astronomer Ewine van Dishoeck is awarded the UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal.{{Cite web |title=Ewine van Dishoeck receives Niels Bohr International Gold Medal |url=https://www.mpe.mpg.de/7908278/news20221007 |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=www.mpe.mpg.de |language=en}}
• 2023: Professor Polina Bayvel becomes the first woman to win the Rumford Medal by the Royal Society.{{Cite web |last=UCL |date=2023-08-30 |title=Professor Polina Bayvel honoured with Royal Society medal |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/iccs/news/2023/aug/professor-polina-bayvel-honoured-royal-society-medal |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=Institute of Communications and Connected Systems |language=en}}
• 2023: Anne l'Huillier receives the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter" shared with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz.

• Timeline of women in science
• Timeline of women in science in the United States
• Women in NASA
• Women in science
• Women in the workforce

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{{History of physics}}

Category:History of physics

Category:Lists of women scientists

Category:Women in science and technology

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