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Scientific Biographies

Science is a human pursuit. Meet some of the people who have contributed to the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.
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Percy Lavon Julian

The grandson of enslaved people, Julian overcame racial barriers to achieve scientific, business, and personal success.

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Dr. Percy Lavon Julian is pictured at the newly constructed chemistry building named in his honor at MacMurray College, 1972.
Science History Institute
Dr. Percy Lavon Julian honored at MacMurray College

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painting of a women in a lab
Elisabeth Bakker *
ca. 1600s
A sepia-toned portrait of a woman with wavy hair, smiling, wearing a dark top.
Florence Ogilvy Bell
1913 - 2000
Katherin Blodgett at General Electric Research Laboratories, 1938.
Katharine Burr Blodgett
1898 - 1979
Portrait of Helia Bravo-Hollis, 2001.
Helia Bravo-Hollis
1901 - 2001
Rachel Fuller Brown
1898 - 1980
black and white portrait of a woman
Mary Letitia Caldwell
1890 - 1972
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
1907 - 1964
illustration from Grounds of Natural Philosophy book
Margaret Lucas Cavendish
1623 - 1673
Undated portrait of mycologist Vera Charles
Vera Katherine Charles
18771954 - 1954
Mildred Cohn
1913 - 2009
Edith Coleman
1874 - 1951
Gerty and Carl Cori working in a lab
Gerty Theresa Cori
1896 - 1957
Marie Sklodowska Curie
1867 - 1934
An image of Marie Maynard Daly, a black woman scientist in a lab coat works with test tubes in a laboratory.
Marie Maynard Daly
1921 - 2003
Hitchings and Elion in a lab wearing lab coats and smiling. They both hold black, blue, red, and white plastic models
Gertrude Elion
1918 - 1999
Louis Fieser
1899 - 1977
Mary Fieser, fall 1951.
Mary Peters Fieser
1909 - 1997
Rosalind Franklin
1920 - 1958
The Frees wearing lab coats and standing in a research lab. Alfred holds what seems to be an animal test subject while Helen injects something.
Helen M. Free
1923 - 2021
Mary Lowe Good
1931 - 2019
Alice Hamilton
1869 - 1970
Anna Jane Harrison
1912 - 1998
Elizabeth Lee Hazen
1885 - 1975
Yeast Art portrait of Fanny Angelina Hesse
Fanny Angelina Hesse
1850 - 1934
Jane Marcet
1769 - 1858
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
b. 1953
A black-and-white photograph of a woman with a serious expression, wearing a dark top with a white collar.
Lise Meitner
1878 - 1968
Margery Milne
1914 - 2006
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