Theano (5th century BC): Married to Pythagorus, Theano is now credited with writing her husband's textbook on the Golden Mean.
Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370-415): Gifted teacher whose philosophy was 'Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.' Exceptionally talented, Hypatia taught at the school at Alexandria, where she wrote treatises on geometry, algebra and astsronomy. She was brutally murdered by those who felt threatened by her brilliant scholarship and scientific knowledge.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179): Mystic and scholar who developed the idea of universal gravitation 500 years before Newton.
Maria Agnesi (1718-1799): Italian child prodigy who, by the age of nine, was fluent in seven languages. Pope Benedict XIV appointed Agnesi to a prefessorship of mathematics at the University of Bologna. Her greatest contribution to mathematics was her Analytical Institutions, published in 1748, a model of clarity in its interpretation of other mathematicians' work. Her solutions to equations can still be found in modern day maths textbooks.
Sophie Germain (1776-1831): France's greatest female mathematician. The Ecole Polytechnique in Paris did not admit women, so she borrowed lecture notes from students. Taking the identity of a former student, Monsieur LeBlanc, she wrote answers to the problems printed for him, impressing the teacher. She made an important contribution to one of the unsolved conundrums of the era, Fermat's last Theorem. The only entrant for a competition prize set by the Institut de France for a mathematical theory of the elasticity of metal plates; she won with her third attempt in 1819 - her first attempt had been in her own name. Her work on elasticity forms the basis of all modern building construction, and was crucial to the building of the Eiffel Tower - yet her name does not appear among the 72 important scholars who made its building possible listed on plaques at the base of the Tower.
Mary Somerville (1780-1872): Scottish mathematician and the first woman to have a paper published by the Royal Society. Somerville was also a populariser of science - her book 'The Mechanism of the Heavens' explained Newton's 'Principia'. But all correspndence concerning this project had to be addressed to her husband. Passionate about women's education, she founded Somerville College, Oxford.
Mary Anning (1799-1847): English fossil collector who discovered the first pleiosaur and pterodactyl.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852): Daughter of the poet Lord Byron and Annabella Millbanke, her mother insisted on bringing her up as a mathematician and scientist. In 1833 her friend and private tutor, Mary Somerville, introduced her to Charles Babbage, then working on a mechanical calculator. In 1843 Babbage's progress had been summarised in French by Italian scientist Louis Menabrea and Ada undertook its translation. Her additional notes ,three times the length of the translation, were penetrating in their insight. She saw that the analytical engine could be used not only for number crunching but to manipulate symbols, letters, words and music - forseeing the computer age.
Maria Mitchell (1818-1910): The most famous American scientist of the 19th century. Self-taught while she was a librarian, she discovered a comet, named 'Miss Mitchell's Comet' and was the first woman member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910): Best known as a nurse, she was an accomplished statistician and was the first to use pie charts to present information showing how improvements in hygiene would save lives.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917): The first British woman to qualify as a doctor. She was accepted into the Society of Apothecaries, which promptly changed its rules to prevent other women doing the same thing. She lobbied to change the law and in 1876 women were at last permitted to enter medecine.
Emily Roebling (1843-1903): When her husband, the engineer in charge of the Brooklyn Bridge, was paralysed after an accident, she oversaw the completion of the bridge, one of the largest civil engineering projects in the US. Her name is on the dedication plaque.
Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923): Born in Portsmouth, it is believed that Ayrton was the first woman to read a paper in person to the Royal Society, yet she was refused a fellowship because she was a married woman. She worked on arc lamps and her improvements to searchlight technology were used in aircraft detection in both world wars. She also invented a fan for dispersing poison gas, used in the trenches, saving many lives.
Nettie Stevens (1861-1912): Discovered that X and Y chromosomes determine gender.
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943): An expert on fungi who, when scientists refused to take her ideas seriously, began writing and illustrating animal stories for family and young friends.
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