List of female scientists in the 21st century
This is a list of notable women scientists who have been around in the 21st century.
Albania
- Mimoza Hafizi Albanian physicist
- Laura Mersini-Houghton, cosmology and theoretical physicist
- Afërdita Veveçka Priftaj Albanian physicist
Argentina
- Sonia Álvarez Leguizamón urban anthropologist studying poverty
- Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini, Argentine paleontologist and zoologist
- Constanza Ceruti, Argentine archaeologist and anthropologist
- Rachel Chan, led group of research scientists to create more drought resistant seed in Argentina
- Perla Fuscaldo, Argentine egyptologist
Armenia
- Vandika Ervandovna Avetisyan botanist and mycologist; major contributor to knowledge of the flora of her native Armenia.
- Ninet Sinaii, epidemiologist
Australia
- Anne Astin, biochemist active in dairy development
- Katherine Belov, Australian geneticist, Tasmanian devil cancer researcher
- Suzanne Cory, Australian molecular biologist
- Jean Finnegan, Australian scientist, researches flowering processes and epigenetic regulation in plants
- Gisela Kaplan, ornithologist and primatologist noted for her research in animal cognition, communication and vocal behaviour of primates and specifically native Australian birds.
- Naomi McClure-Griffiths, American-Australian astrophysicist. Discovered a new arm of the Milky Way galaxy
- Jessica Melbourne-Thomas,, marine ecologist and ecosystem modeller with the Australian Antarctic Division
- Sue O'Connor Australian archaeologist, discovered the world's oldest fish hooks which were found in an adult female's grave
- Lesley J Rogers, Australian ethologist and neuroscientist, expert in brain laterality
- Una M. Ryan, patented DNA test identifying protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium
- Helen Alma Newton Turner, geneticist and statistician, expert on sheep genetics
- Carden Wallace, marine biologist and museum director, expert on corals
- Rachel Webster, astrophysicist, educator
- Mary E. White, paleobotanist
Austria
- Elisabeth Binder, Austrian neuroscientist specializing in anxiety disorders
- Claire F. Gmachl, Austrian-born American electrical engineer, educator
- Lisa Kaltenegger, Austrian astronomer, educator
- Christine Mannhalter, molecular biologist
- Elisabeth Ruttkay, Austrian Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeologist
- Eva Schönbeck-Temesy Hungarian-born Austrian botanist
Barbados
- Velma Scantlebury, first woman of African descent to become a transplant surgeon in the U.S.
Belgium
- Ingrid Daubechies, Belgian physicist and mathematician
- Véronique Dehant, geodesist and geophysicist
- Véronique Gouverneur, chemist, educator, specializing in organic fluorine compounds
- Yaël Nazé, Belgian astrophysicist specializing in massive stars
Bolivia
- Sonia Alconini, Bolivian archaeologist of the Formative Period of the Lake Titicaca basin
- Kathrin Barboza Marquez, Bolivian biologist specializing in bat research
Brazil
- Mariza Corrêa, anthropologist, sociologist
- Livia Eberlin analytical chemist, co-inventor of the MassSpec pen
- Fátima Ferreira, biologist, physician, educator, now vice-rector at the University of Salzburg specializing in molecular allergology
- Dorath Pinto Uchôa, archaeologist
- Lúcia Mendonça Previato, biologist
- Alba Zaluar, anthropologist specializing in urban anthropology
- Mayana Zatz, molecular biologist and geneticist
Canada
- Karen Bailey, plant pathology
- Karen Beauchemin, ruminant nutrition research
- Roberta Bondar, neurologist, astronaut, educator
- Kirsten Bos, physical anthropologist, molecular paleopathologist
- Juliet Daniel, focus on cancer biology
- Martine Dorais, plant physiology, organic horticulture
- Laura Ferrarese, astronomer
- Roberta Gilchrist, Canadian archaeologist specializing in medieval Britain
- Sheena Josselyn, Canadian neuroscientist
- Julia Levy, microbiologist, immunologist, entrepreneur
- Mary MacArthur, botanist, cytologist
- Deborah Martin-Downs, aquatic biologist, ecologist
- Diane Massam, linguist
- Elizabeth Pattey, agricultural meteorologist
- Heather Pringle, writer on archaeology
- Kathleen I. Pritchard, oncologist, breast cancer researcher and noted as one of Reuter's most cited scientists
- Line Rochefort, Canadian ecologist
- Francine Saillant, anthropologist, writer
- Sandra Schmid, cell biologist
- Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein, animal ethologist
- Sara Seager, Canadian-American astronomer and planetary scientist
- Felicitas Svejda, horticulturalist
- Sandra Witelson, neuroscientist
- Rachel Zimmerman, Canadian-born space scientist
Chile
- Ligia Gargallo, chemist, educator
- Veronica Vallejos, marine biologist and Antarctic researcher
- Ana Vásquez-Bronfman Chilean-French sociologist
- Maria Teresa Ruiz astronomer
China
- Margaret Chan, Chinese health specialist, director-general of the World Health Organization
- Zeng Rong, biochemist specializing in proteins
- Jian Xu, CTO at IBM, software engineer
- Zhao Yufen, chemical engineer
- Qian Zhengying, Chinese hydrologist and politician
- Lü Zhi, giant panda expert and conservationist
Colombia
- Diana Marcela Bolaños Rodriguez, marine biologist studying flat worms and stem cell regeneration
- Ana Maria Rey, theoretical physicist
Croatia
- Snježana Kordić, linguist
- Nina Marković, physicist and professor
Cuba
- Herminia Ibarra, economist
Czech Republic
- Eva Syková, neuroscientist researching spinal cord injury
Denmark
- Anja Cetti Andersen, astronomer, astrophysicist
- Lene Hau, physicist
- Signe Normand, biologist, ecologist, educator
Dominican Republic
- Idelisa Bonnelly, marine biologist who created first sanctuary in the North Atlantic for humpback whales
- Aída Mencía Ripley, clinical psychologist
Finland
- Tuija I. Pulkkinen, Finnish space scientist
France
- Anne Dejean-Assémat, biologist researching liver cancer
- Merieme Chadid, Astronomer, Explorer and Astrophysicist
- Mireille Bousquet-Mélou, mathematician
- Catherine Feuillet, French molecular biologist who was the first scientist to map the wheat chromosome 3B
- Françoise Gasse, paleobiologist specializing in lacustrine sediments
- Laurence Lanfumey, French neuroscientist
- Dominique Langevin, physical chemist
- Claudine Rinner, amateur astronomer
- Aurore Avarguès-Weber, cognitive neuroscientist
Germany
- Andrea Ablasser, German immunologist working in Switzerland
- Katrin Amunts, prominent neuroscientist involved in brain mapping.
- Ulrike Beisiegel, German biochemist, researcher of liver fats and first female president of the University of Göttingen
- Sibylle Günter, theoretical physicist researching tokamak plasmas
- Hanna von Hoerner, astrophysicist
- Eva-Maria Neher, German biochemist, microbiologist
- Nina Papavasiliou, immunologist
- Elisabeth Piirainen, philologist
- Ilme Schlichting, biophysicist
- Brigitte Voit, chemist
Greece
- Lydia Kravraki, computer scientist, professor at Rice
Guadeloupe
- Dany Bébel-Gisler, Guadeloupean sociolinguist and ethnographer
India
- Joyanti Chutia, work spans both centuries, focusing on physics
- Seetha Coleman-Kammula Indian chemist and plastics designer, turned environmentalist
- Paramjit Khurana, Indian biologist specializing in plant biotechnology
- Shobhana Narasimhan, Indian physicist, professor of theoretical sciences in Bangalore
- Priyamvada Natarajan, Indian-born American astronomer, educator
- Manju Ray, Indian biochemist developing anticancer drugs
- Seema Bhatnagar,, Indian scientist, working in the field of Anticancer Drug Discovery.
Iran
- Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian-American mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University
- Saba Valadkhan,Tehran Education:Columbia University an Iranian American biomedical scientist, and an Assistant Professor and RNA researcher at Case Western Reserve University.
- Ālenush Teriān, Iranian-Armenian astronomer and physicist and is called 'Mother of Modern Iranian Astronomy'
- Mina J. Bissell, Iranian-American biologist known for her research on breast cancer.
- Pardis C. Sabeti, Iranian-American computational biologist, medical geneticist and evolutionary geneticist
- Roxana Moslehi, genetic epidemiologist, researching cancer and cancer precursors
- Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American engineer and co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems
- Reihaneh Safavi-Naini, AITF Strategic Chair in Information Security at the University of Calgary, Canada
Iraq
- Lihadh Al-Gazali, geneticist, established a registry for congenital disorders in the United Arab Emirates
Israel
- Osnat Penn, Israeli computational biologist
- Ada Yonath, Israeli crystallographer
- Idit Zehavi, Israeli astrophysicist
Italy
- Maria Abbracchio, Italian pharmacologist who works with purinergic receptors and identified GPR17; on Reuter's most cited list since 2006
- Daria Guidetti, astrophysicist with the INAF
- Chiara Nappi, Italian particle physicist active in the US
- Elisa Oricchio, discovered that the protein EphA7 activates the tumor suppressor gene for patients with follicular lymphoma
Latvia
- Emīlija Gudriniece, Latvian chemist and academic
Luxembourg
- Christiane Linster, behavioral neuroscientist
Morocco
- Merieme Chadid, Astronomer, Explorer and Astrophysicist
- Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli,, known for her contribution to the proof of existence for the Higgs Boson.
Netherlands
- Corinne Hofman, Dutch archaeologist
New Zealand
- Margaret Brimble,, chemist, researching shellfish toxins.
- Gillian Wratt,, botanist and Antarctic researcher.
Nigeria
- Taiwo Olayemi Elufioye, pharmacologist
- Francisca Oboh Ikuenobe
- Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi, environmental biochemist, Oréal-Unesco award in 2013
- Grace Oladunni Taylor, Nigerian chemist, 2nd woman inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Science
- Omowunmi Sadik, chemist, educator
- Margaret Adebisi Sowunmi
- Felicity Okpete Ovai
Norway
- Tine Jensen, psychologist specializing in psychological trauma
Peru
- Virginia Vargas, sociologist, writer
Portugal
- Mónica Bettencourt-Dias biochemist and microbiologist
- Maria Manuel Mota malariologist and executive director of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon
Russia
- Eugenia Kumacheva, Russian-born chemist, since 1995 teaching in Canada
Saudi Arabia
- Suhad Bahajri, chemist
- Samira Islam, pharmacologist, educator
Serbia
- Nataša Pavlović, mathematician
Singapore
- Gloria Lim, Singaporean mycologist, first woman Dean of the University of Singapore
- Lisa Ng, virologist
South Africa
- Renée Hložek, cosmologist and professor of physics
- Valerie Mizrahi, molecular biologist
- Tebello Nyokong, South African chemist and cancer researcher
- Jennifer Thomson, microbiologist
Spain
- Margarita Salas, biochemist, author
- Mercedes Fernández-Martorell, anthropologist, educator
- María José García Borge, nuclear physicist
- Carme Torras, computer scientist specialising in robotics
- Carmen Vela, microbiologist, ministerial official, writer
South Korea
- Ju-Lee Kim, mathematician, educator, now in the United States
- Myeong-Hee Yu, South Korean microbiologist
Switzerland
- Silvia Arber, neuroscientist
- Anita Studer, ornithologist and environmentalist
Taiwan
- Chung-Pei Ma, astrophysicist, now in the United States
Turkey
- Ayşe Erzan, theoretical physicist
Ukraine
- Svitlana Mayboroda, mathematician, educator, researching harmonic analysis and partial differential equations
United Kingdom
- Denise P. Barlow, British geneticist
- Gillian Bates, British botanist, educator, Fellow of the Royal Society
- Alex Bayliss British archaeologist
- Sue Black, British computer scientist
- Jocelyn Bell Burnell astrophysicist who discovered radio pulsars
- A. Catrina Bryce, Scottish electrical engineer, educator
- Mandy Chessell, British computer scientist with IBM
- Jenny Clack, paleontologist, expert on the "fish to tetrapod" evolutionary transition
- Bryony Coles British prehistoric archaeologist
- Janet Darbyshire, British epidemiologist, CBE
- Annette Dolphin, British pharmacologist
- Shahina Farid, British archaeologist, best known for her work as Field Director and Project Coordinator at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey.
- Maria Fitzgerald, British neuroscientist
- Jane Goodall, British primatologist and anthropologist
- Monica Grady, British space scientist
- Emily Grossman, British cancer researcher and science popularist
- Helena Hamerow, British archeologist and specialist in medieval archaeology
- Joanne Johnson, geologist, Antarctic scientist
- Tara Keck, American-British neuroscientist
- Rachel McKendry, chemist and digital public health pioneer
- Linda McDowell, British geographer, writer
- Jane E. Parker, British botanist who researches the immune responses of plants
- Emma Parmee, British chemist who was one of the leads in the discovery and development of sitagliptin
- Margaret Stanley, British virologist, OBE
- Jean Thomas, Welsh biochemist, educator
- Miriam Tildesley, English anthropologist
- Karen Vousden, British medical researcher
- Christine Williams, British nutritionist, educator
United States
Astronomy
- Carolyn Porco, American planetary scientist
- Debra Elmegreen, astronomer, educator
- Jill Tarter, American astronomer, educator
- Joy Crisp, American planetary scientist
- Linda Spilker, American planetary scientist
- Lucy-Ann McFadden, astronomer
- Maria Zuber, American planetary scientist
- Martha P. Haynes, American astronomer specializing in radio astronomy
- Pamela Gay, American astronomer
- Rachel Zimmerman, Canadian-born space scientist
- Sandra Faber, American professor of astronomy
Other Fields of Study
- Athena Aktipis, American professor of evolutionary biology and psychology
- Alice Alldredge, American oceanographer and researcher of marine snow, discover of Transparent Exopolymer Particles and demersal zooplankton
- Ilkay Altintas, Turkish-American supercomputing and high performance computing research scientist
- Aprile D. Benner, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Lera Boroditsky, Belarusian-American cognitive scientist
- Amy E. Bryan, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Stephanie Burns, organosilicon chemist, business executive
- L. Jean Camp, computer security expert, professor
- Lu Chen, Chinese-born American neuroscientist
- Anne Churchland, American neuroscientist
- Sylvia Earle, marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer
- Deborah Estrin, American computer scientist, educator
- Karen L. Fingerman, American professor of human development, family sciences, and psychology
- Katherine Freese, theoretical astrophysicist, American professor of physics
- Elizabeth Gershoff, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Marci E. Gleason, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Candace S. Greene, American anthropologist, National Museum of Natural History
- Jane Grimwood, microbiologist, from 2000 worked on the Human Genome Project at Stanford
- Lisa Gunaydin, neuroscientist and professor
- Gail Hanson, American experimental particle physicist, educator
- Nancy L. Hazen-Swann, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Gabriele C. Hegerl, climatologist researching natural variability and attribution of climate change
- Patricia Hersh, mathematician, educator, researching algebraic and topological combinatorics
- Valerie Horsley, American biologist
- Aletha C. Huston, American professor of child development
- Shirley Ann Jackson, American nuclear physicist
- Alice K. Jacobs, American cardiologist, president of the American Heart Association
- Deborah Jacobvitz, American ecologist
- Karen C. Johnson American physician and clinical trials specialist who is one of Reuter's most cited scientists
- Rosemary Joyce, American archaeologist who uncovered chocolate's archaeological record and studies Honduran pre-history
- Renata Kallosh, Russian-born American theoretical physicist, educator
- Cyndy Karras, American professor of human and child development
- Dina Katabi, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT
- Cynthia Keppel, nuclear physicist
- Ann Kiessling, American reproductive biologist, educator
- Su Yeong Kim, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Karrol A. Kitt, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Maria Kovacs, psychologist, educator
- Amber Kreischer, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Cynthia Larive, American bioanalytical chemist
- Emily Levesque, American astrophysicist
- J. Virginia Lincoln, physicist
- Mariangela Lisanti, American theoretical physicist
- Anna Suk-Fong Lok, Chinese/American hepatologist, wrote WHO and AASLD guidelines for liver disease in emerging countries
- Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Catherine A. Lozupone, American microbiologist, working on the gut microbiome, who developed the UniFrac algorithm
- Silvia Maciá, marine biologist
- Carolyn M. Mazure, medical researcher
- Sally McBrearty, American palaeoanthropologist and Palaeolithic archaeologist
- Lauren Meyers, American professor of integrative biology
- Jill Mikucki, microbiologist, Antarctic researcher
- Marianne V. Moore, aquatic ecologist
- Yolanda T. Moses, anthropologist, educator
- Elizabeth Munoz, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Alison Murray , biochemist, Antarctic researcher
- Elizabeth Nance, American chemical engineer
- Anna Nagurney, Ukrainian-American mathematician specializing in operations management
- Ann Nardulli,, American endocrinologist
- Elly Nedivi, American neuroscientist
- Lisa Neff, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Ann Nelson, American particle physicist
- Anne B. Newman, US geriatrics and gerontology expert
- Lina Nilsson, biomedical engineering
- Karen Oberhauser, conservation biologist working with monarch butterflies
- Sarah D. Ozuna, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Lara L. Pauley, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Nataša Pavlović, psychologist
- E. Gail de Planque, nuclear physicist specializing in environmental radiation
- Eva J. Pell, American biologist, plant pathologist
- Helen Quinn, Australian-born American particle physicist
- Lisa Randall, American particle physicist, educator
- Rebecca Richards-Kortum, American bioengineer, professor at Rice
- Una Ryan,, Malaysian born-American, heart disease researcher, biotech vaccine and diagnostics maker/marketer
- Omowunmi Sadik, Nigerian-born chemist, Bioanalytical chemistry
- Linda Saif, American microbial scientist, researching virology and immunology
- Sandra Saouaf, American immunologist researching autoimmune disease
- Velma Scantlebury see Barbados
- Hazel Schmoll, American botanist
- Christine Siddoway, Antarctic geologist
- Caroline M. Solomon, deaf oceanographer and winner of the 2017 Ramón Margalef Award for Excellence in Education
- Carsen Stringer, American computational neuroscientist
- Sharon Stocker, known for discovery of Griffin Warrior Tomb
- Catherine A. Surra, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Elizabeth C. Theil, research into iron deficiency anemia
- Kay Tye, American neuroscientist
- Gina G. Turrigiano, American neuroscientist
- Fatima A. Varner, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Lydia Villa-Komaroff, American molecular biologist
- Elisabeth Vrba, American paleontologist
- Nora Volkow, Mexican-American psychiatrist
- Elizabeth M. Ward, American epidemiologist and head of the Epidemiology and Surveillance Research Department of the American Cancer Society
- Rachel Ward, American mathematician
- Christina Warinner, American anthropologist best known for her research on ancient microbiomes
- Petra Wilder-Smith, American dentistry and cancer researcher
- Hannah Williamson, American professor of human development and family sciences
- Phyllis Wise, American biologist, educator
- Catherine G. Wolf, American psychologist specializing in human-computer interaction
- Kakani Katija Young, American bioengineer
- Hua Eleanor Yu, cancer researcher
Venezuela
- Mayly Sánchez astrophysicist studying neutrinos, awarded the US PECASE Prize in 2011
Vietnam
- Phạm Thị Trân Châu, biochemist
- Hoang Thi Than, Vietnamese geological engineer and archaeologist
Zambia
- Nsofwa Petronella Sampa, psychological counselor and HIV activist.
Zimbabwe
- Idah Sithole-Niang, biochemist focusing on cowpea production and disease