Natural Science

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Collection
Mayim Bialik standing in front of a bookshelf with Jewish books

Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik is most famous for starring as the titular character in the early 1990s series Blossom and, in the 2010s, on Big Bang Theory as Amy Farrah-Fowler. She is also known for being one of the few observant Jewish actors in Hollywood and for holding a PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA.

Sargassum Seaweed
August 1, 2019

Seaweed: What's Judaism Got to Do with It?

Emma Mair

Jewish tradition teaches us to care for our planet, preserve our natural resources, and generate new resources for coming generations.

Topics: Activism, Natural Science
2016-2017 Rising Voices Fellow Maya Jodidio Pipetting DNA into a Gel
September 6, 2017

To Girls Taking Their First STEM Classes

Caroline Kubzansky and
Maya Jodidio
If you’re a female-identifying teen and you attend high school, chances are good that you take, or will take, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) class. Physics, biology, and chemistry are the usual suspects. We’re writing to share some collective wisdom with you from our own high-school experience.
Topics: Feminism, Schools, Engineering, Inventors, Natural Science, Physics
Tikvah Alper
December 21, 2016

The Social Justice and Science Superwoman: Tikvah Alper

Maya Jodidio

Few women have been both scientists and social justice activists in their lifetimes. Both of these roles are time-consuming and challenging, yet somehow Tikvah Alper succeeded as a distinguished radiobiologist and as a fierce opponent to the apartheid in South Africa.

Topics: Activism, Natural Science
Joan Feynman

Joan Feynman

Astrophysicist Joan Feynman shaped our understanding of solar winds, auroras, and sunspots, and her battle to open scientific bastions to women transformed the field for those who followed.
Gertrude Elion and Nina Fefferman

Gertrude Elion / Nina Fefferman

Scientists

Leaders in the Lab

Nina Fefferman

Nina Fefferman

Evolutionary biologist and epidemiologist Nina Fefferman uses mathematical models to chart how individual choices ripple outward to affect whole groups, helping create strategies to save populations from endangered tortoises to human communities stricken by disease.

Elizabeth Slade Hirschfeld

Elizabeth Slade Hirschfeld’s search for a way to make a difference led her first to become a Freedom Rider and then a public school teacher.
Evelyn Fox Keller

Evelyn Fox Keller

Evelyn Fox Keller’s work in gender, biology, and the history of science led her to question the gendered metaphors and assumptions of biologists and sociologists, which often blinded them to basic scientific facts.
Steve Benson on the Death of Elsa Neumann Thumbnail

Death of Elsa Neumann, first female doctoral graduate of University of Berlin

July 23, 1902

Death of Elsa Neumann, first female doctoral graduate of University of Berlin

Emma Goldman, 1919

Women of Valor: Jewish Heroes Across Time

Learn about the lives of three trailblazing women and get some practical ideas for how to bring their stories into your community in creative ways.
Ruth Sager

Birth of Ruth Sager, innovative scientific achiever

February 7, 1918

“Science is a way of life.  I think it all comes from the inside.  It really gets to the very core of your existence.  It is much like being an artist or a dancer.

Helen Mahut, 1942

Helen Mahut, 1920 - 2010

She was a pioneer in discovering the purpose of certain areas of the brain, and the implications regarding human behavior. Without Dr. Helen Mahut, modern medicine would have a very different view and understanding of memory, the human brain, and resultant human behavior.

Rita Arditti, 2005

Rita Arditti, 1934 - 2009

She went from a young Argentinian middle- to upper-class kid raised not to question women's roles in the home to leading crusader for women's issues (notably as they applied to the world of science)...

Mildred Cohn, cropped

Mildred Cohn, 1913 - 2009

Back in Cohn's day even her own PhD advisor could not help her find a suitable job, for in the era of pre-"equal opportunity" employment, Cohn had two strikes going against her – being a woman and Jewish – that no amount of talent could seem to overcome.

Gertrude Elion in the Burroughs Wellcome Laboratory, 1952

Gertrude Elion

Gertrude Elion's accomplishments over the course of her long career as a chemist were tremendous. Among the many drugs she developed were the first chemotherapy for childhood leukemia, the immunosuppressant that made organ transplantation possible, the first effective anti-viral medication, and treatments for lupus, hepatitis, arthritis, gout, and other diseases.

Maxine Singer

Maxine Frank Singer steps down as head of Carnegie Institution

December 31, 2002

Maxine Frank Singer, a leading biochemistry researcher and advocate of science education, stepped down after 14 years at the helm of the Carnegie I

Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori in the Lab

Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori wins Nobel Prize

December 10, 1947
Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori became the first American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in science.
Rita Levi-Montalcini at 100, 2009

Rita Levi-Montalcini wins the Nobel Prize

October 13, 1986

Rita Levi-Montalcini’s pioneering work on nerve growth earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on October 13, 1986.

amFAR AIDS Research Logo

Spotlight on work of AIDS activist Mathilde Krim

June 24, 1983

Biologist Mathilde Krim recognized soon after the first cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported in 1981 that this new dise

Maxine Singer

Biochemist Maxine Frank Singer receives National Medal of Science

June 23, 1992

Maxine Frank Singer, a leading biochemistry researcher and advocate of science education, was awarded the National Medal of Science on June 23, 19

Frances Stern

Frances Stern

Frances Stern’s experience as a second-generation American Jew dedicated to social reform and in contact with several prominent women engaged in social work led her to a career in scientific nutrition, applied dietetics, and home economics. Stern founded the Food Clinic of the Boston Dispensary, a center for dispensing practical advice on food and meal preparation for outpatients and their families that also served as a center for research on the relationships among health, nutrition, class, and ethnicity.

Maxine Singer

Maxine Singer

Maxine Singer’s distinguished career included positions at the National Institutes of Health, the Carnegie Institution, and Johnson & Johnson. Her work focused specifically on investigations of genetic material; she also concentrated on creating opportunities for women and minorities in the sciences.

Science in Israel

In Israel, awareness has grown recently that only through proactive effort can gender equality in scientific fields can be realized. Thorough investigations of inequalities have taken place, and actions are being taken to catalyze policy and systematic action to further women in science and technology.
Margarete Zuelzer, 1902

Margarete Zuelzer

Margarete Zuelzer’s life epitomizes both the successes and frustrations of women scientists in academia in the first half of the twentieth century. One of the first generation of women scientists in Germany and also one of the first to receive an appointment in a ministry of the Weimar Republic, she was forced to flee from Nazi Germany. Unable to find refuge, she was murdered in 1943.

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