Friday, October 5, 2018

Women who changed the world: Maya Lin, American sculptor and architect



Maya Lin

AMERICAN SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT

Monday, September 10, 2018

Women who changed the world: Emilie du Chatelet



"Émilie du Châtelet (December 17, 1706–September 10, 1749), born nineteen years after the publication of Newton’s revolutionary Principia, became besotted with science at the age of twelve and devoted the remainder of her life to the passionate quest for mathematical illumination. Although she was ineligible for academic training — it would be nearly two centuries until universities finally opened their doors to women — and was even excluded from the salons and cafés that served as the era’s informal epicenters of intellectual life, open only to men, Du Châtelet made herself into a formidable mathematician, a scholar of unparalleled rigor, and a pioneer of popular science."


https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/01/03/emilie-du-chatelet-fable-of-the-bees-preface/

Thursday, September 6, 2018

The Women of Science Tarot Deck



"

The Women of Science Tarot Deck channels the powerful, pioneering women of STEM alongside fundamental concepts in science, math, engineering and technology to help you tell stories about the future. The deck is a fun way to learn about our past and think about ways of tackling the big problems that await us as a species."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nadja/women-of-science-tarot-deck

Friday, June 8, 2018

Women who changed the world: Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)



"Gwendolyn Brooks, in full Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, (born June 7, 1917, Topeka, Kan., U.S.—died Dec. 3, 2000, Chicago, Ill.), American poet whose works deal with the everyday life of urban blacks. She was the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950), and in 1968 she was named the poet laureate of Illinois.
Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in Chicago in 1936. Her early verses appeared in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper written primarily for that city’s African American community. Her first published collection, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), reveals her talent for making the ordinary life of her neighbours extraordinary. Annie Allen (1949), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, is a loosely connected series of poems related to an African American girl’s growing up in Chicago. The same theme was used for Brooks’s novel Maud Martha (1953)."

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Women who changed the world: Greta Stevenson






Greta Stevenson [Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa - C-17974]
GRETA STEVENSON [ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NEW ZEALAND, TE "PUNA MATAURANGA O AOTEAROA – C-17974]
"New Zealanders were introduced to the native mushrooms of New Zealand in a series of five papers published between 1962 and 1964. The author was Greta Stevenson who began collecting mushrooms in the late 1940s and through the 1950s culminating in her going to Kew to work in the herbarium and prepare a manuscript for publication. ‘The Agaricales of New Zealand’ series was published in Kew Bulletin with the Nuffield Foundation funding the printing of the coloured plates. Marie Taylor told me that Greta was terribly disappointed in the colour reproduction of her watercolours.
In her biography, Kay McFarlane says that Greta went to Wellington in 1970 where she worked for ten years as an unpaid research officer in the Botany Department at Victoria University of Wellington. She also says that from 1980 to 1981 Greta worked at the University of Canterbury’s Botany Department where, while undertaking research, she conducted a number of workshops and study courses on larger fungi. This is not totally correct. In her obituary of Greta, Marie Taylor noted that “Her characteristic acerbic comment leaves us in no doubt of her position on controversial topics”.  A falling out with the Botany Department in 1980 saw Greta move to the Geology department. In 1981 I attended an extension course on identifying larger fungi run by Greta at Victoria University. Greta used the notes she produced for this course for her book Field Guide to Fungi (1982) which was reprinted after her death as New Zealand Fungi: an Illustrated Guide (1994). Unfortunately, Greta fell out with the Geology Department which resulted in her move to Christchurch and then to England where she died in 1991."

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Women who changed the world: Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992)



"Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was a computer pioneer and naval officer. She received a master’s degree (1930) and a Ph.D. (1934) in mathematics from Yale. One of the first three modern “programmers,” Hopper is best known for her trailblazing contributions to the development of computer languages. Known as irreverent, sharp-tongued, and brilliant, she enjoyed long and influential careers in both the U.S. Navy and the private sector."

https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service

Friday, April 13, 2018

Women who changed the world: Emilie Snethlage (1868-1929)



Emilie Snethlage

b. 1868 Kratz, Westphalia, Germany; d. 1929, Porto Velho, Brazil

Emilie Snethlage was a zoologist, ethnologist, and ornithologist. She spent her entire professional career in the Amazon jungles of Brazil, where she directed the zoology departments of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, a museum and research institute in Belém, Pará (1905–22), and the Museo Nacional at Rio de Janerio (1922–29). Snethlage was awarded an honorary membership in the British Ornithologists’ Union in 1915.


http://central.gutenberg.org/articles/Emilia_Snethlage

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Women who changed the world: Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921)


"Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) was a U.S. astronomer whose work guided the field to understand distances in the universe. At a time when women's contributions were undervalued, attributed to male scientists, or ignored, Leavitt's findings were seminal to astronomy as we understand it today.
Leavitt's careful work measuring the brightness of variable stars, forms the basis of astronomical understanding of such topics as distances in the universe and the evolution of stars. Such luminaries as astronomer Edwin P. Hubble praised her, stating that his own discoveries rested largely on her accomplishments."

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Jane Franklin, Benjamin Franklin´s younger sister



Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, was the tenth son of his parents, and his sister Jane was the last child of the marriage and the last one of the seven daughters.

They both started their personal life around the age of 15. At that age, Benjamin left his father's house and went out in search of opportunities. At that same age, Jane got married and started having children. She had 12 children.

The siblings maintained a regular correspondence, despite the educational differences between the two of them. Franklin thought his sister was a very intelligent person and paid attention to her opinions.  On the basis of these letters a biography of Jane has been written.

Jane Franklin
https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/12/19/book-of-ages-jane-franklin/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/hello-dolly-on-likeness