Mother’s Day — Meet the Mothers of Science

By Ashritha Raghavendra

May 07 , 2022

Ada Lovelace

Lovelace was the first to write a computer program in a time when computers didn’t even exist.

Image source: Wikipedia

Mother of Computer Programming

Esther Conwell

Conwell’s work on superconductivity revolutionised modern computing. She had 4 patents and 270 published papers.

Image source: Wikipedia

Pioneer in the Field of Semiconductors

Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Leavitt discovered the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid stars, which helped measure the distance between the Earth and far-off galaxies.

Image source: Wikipedia

Mother of Physical Cosmology

Florence Nightingale

Nightingale demanded better hospital sanitization and living conditions for nurses and injured soldiers after returning from the Crimean War in the 1850s.

Image source: Wikipedia

Mother of Modern Nursing

Marie Curie

Curie is the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize twice and in two different fields of science. Her research forms the basis of modern-day cancer radiation therapy.

Image source: Wikipedia

Mother of Modern Physics 

Olive Dennis

Dennis was a civil engineer who made train travelling far more comfortable. Her creations include partially reclining seats, stain-resistant upholstery, free paper towels, individual vents for clean air, etc.

Image source: Wikipedia

Revolutionised Railway Travel

Ellen Swallow Richards

Richards’s research in sanitary engineering set the water-quality standards in America and established the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant.

Image source: Wikipedia

Mother of Home Economics

Joan Feynman

Feynman developed a way to predict sunspots. Her geophysical research spans over five decades and is used by NASA even today.

Image source: Wikipedia

Mother of Magnetospheric Physics