Since the origination of the Nobel Prize in 1901, 60 women have been awarded the Nobel Prize. Marie Curie is the only woman awarded twice, once in Physics in 1903 and again in Chemistry in 1911. Twenty-three of these women were honored for works in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine. You can read more below about the works of these women and on the Nobel Prize website.
You can learn more about the women Nobel Laureates by selecting an area on the left-hand menu for Chemistry, Physics, or Physiology and Medicine. A description of their work is provided from the Nobel Laureates website, along with a link to the Library's catalogue to find more resources such as books, videos, and articles.
Nobel Prize Women in Science by Carolyn Bertozzi [2022] - Chemistry
"Chemists strive to build increasingly complicated molecules. For a long time, this has been very time consuming and expensive. Click chemistry means that molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Around 2000, Carolyn Bertozzi started utilising click chemistry in living organisms. She developed bioorthogonal reactions which take place inside living organisms without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell. These reactions are now used to explore cells, track biological processes, and improve the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals." - Carolyn Bertozzi – Facts – 2022. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Wed. 21 Jun 2023.
May-Britt Moser [2014] - Physiology or Medicine
"A number of serious infectious diseases are caused by parasites spread by insects. Malaria is caused by a single-cell parasite that causes severe fever. In the 1970s, after studies of traditional herbal medicines, Tu Youyou focused on sweet wormwood and managed to extract a substance, artemisinin, which inhibits the malaria parasite. Drugs based on artemisinin have led to the survival and improved health of millions of people."Jennifer Doudna [2020] - Chemistry
"The life processes of organisms are controlled by genes made up of sections of DNA. In 2012, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier developed a method for high-precision genome editing. They used the immune system of a bacterium, which disables viruses by cutting their DNA up with a type of genetic scissors. By extracting and simplifying the genetic scissors' molecular components, they made it generally applicable. The CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors can lead to new scientific discoveries, better crops and new weapons in the fight against cancer and genetic diseases." - Jennifer A. Doudna – Facts – 2020. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Wed. 21 Jun 2023.
Donna Strickland [2018] - Physics
"The sharp beams of laser light have given us new opportunities for deepening our knowledge about the world and shaping it. In 1985, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland succeeded in creating ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses without destroying the amplifying material. First they stretched the laser pulses in time to reduce their peak power, then amplified them, and finally compressed them. The intensity of the pulse then increases dramatically. Chirped pulse amplification has many uses, including corrective eye surgeries."
Donna Strickland – Facts – 2018. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Wed. 21 Jun 2023.
Read more about her research by searching the Library's Catalogue.
Andrea Ghez [2020] - Physics
Tu Youyou [2015] - Physiology or Medicine
"A number of serious infectious diseases are caused by parasites spread by insects. Malaria is caused by a single-cell parasite that causes severe fever. In the 1970s, after studies of traditional herbal medicines, Tu Youyou focused on sweet wormwood and managed to extract a substance, artemisinin, which inhibits the malaria parasite. Drugs based on artemisinin have led to the survival and improved health of millions of people."