SAASST News

Saturday, 15 January 2022 19:21

SAASST Lecture: A Brief History of Women in Physics

The Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology organized a general lecture on "A Brief History of Women in Physics" on Jan. 12, 2022. The lecture was given by Ms. Maryam Al-Qasimi, a research assistant at the High Energy Astrophysics Laboratory. Ms. Maryam highlighted the importance and the role of women in promoting science and engineering at all levels. Science and technology are often considered to be the domain of men. Nevertheless, the contribution of women to the progress of these areas cannot be disregarded. There have been numerous gifted and far-

famed women scientists in history who made crucial discoveries and inventions in science. Among them, we can mention a few

Marie Curie (1867-1934), a Polish-born French physicist and chemist best known for her contributions to radioactivity.

Maria Mayer (1906-1972), a German-born American physicist who received a Nobel Prize for suggesting the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus.

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), a British biophysicist, is best known for her work on coal and graphite molecular structures and X-ray diffraction.

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), an American physician who was the first woman to become a medical doctor in the United States.

Ruby Payne-Scott (1912-1981), an Australian, a pioneer in radio astronomy, the study of celestial objects at radio frequencies, and radiophysics.

Vera Rubin (1928-2016), an American astronomer who conducted pioneering work on galaxy rotation rates, provided evidence for dark matter's existence.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943-), an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland, co-discovered the first radio pulsars (highly magnetized neutron stars or white dwarfs) while still a graduate student in 1967.

Katherine Johnson (1918-2020), an American physicist and mathematician whose orbital mechanics calculations made possible the first and subsequent manned U.S. spaceflights.

 

The video of the lecture can be found through YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIGzqxec8Pc