Women and the Nobel Prize

Which highly distinquished Jewish, English-speaking, woman-author was born in South Africa, was fiercely political in her writings and whose most widely read novels included, 'The Conservationist' and 'Burger's Daughter'?

Nadine Gordimer. She was born in 1923 and grew up in the difficult conditions of apartheid, which she resented immensely. However, even though she would not identify with the White minority, she had difficulty identifying with the Black majority, whom she supported. In her writings she was totally committed to exploring and exposing the social inequities of apartheid for all of the people of South Africa. Her earlier novels included, 'Which New Era Would That Be?'and 'Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet?' She was named Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1991.

Which famous, highly honored German-American woman, with extensive training in mathematics and physics, demonstrated that the atomic nucleus has a structure containing successive proton-neutron shells held together by highly complex forces?

Maria Goeppert Mayer. Maria Goeppert was born in 1906 in Kattowitz, Germany (now Poland) and was educated at the University of Gottingen, Germany. She married an American physicist, Joseph E. Mayer, in 1931 and they immigrated to the United States. She shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Hans D. Jensen. She became the second woman to be named Nobel Laureate in Physics and the third to be named a Nobel Laureate in the science categories.

Which famous, very highly honored woman won the Nobel Prize twice, but in two different categories?

Marie Sklodowska Curie. Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. She studied mathematics, physics and chemistry in Paris, France. She married Pierre Curie and as a team they studied radio-active substances and discovered radium and polonium. For those discoveries she and her husband shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. In 1906 her husband, who was ill from over exposure to radiation, died in an accident. Marie Curie continued her studies and isolated the radium element and described its unusual characteristics. For that work she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.

Which famous, highly honored woman was a prominent suffragist, social reformer and founder of the Hull House in Chicago, Illinois?

Jane Addams. Jane Addams was born in 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. She was educated in The Rockville Female Seminary, one of the earlier all women colleges. She suffered several episodes of severe clinical depression that interrupted her social work. After a two year trip to Europe, she and a close friend became mutually interested in social reform and the advancement of women's rights, including the right to vote. She was the founder of the famous Hull House in Chicago. In 1931 she was named Nobel Laureate in Peace.

Which famous noble woman was the founder of a new field of science called, 'Protein Crystallography' and with her family, worked for more than 30 years in programs for World Peace?

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. Dorothy Crowfoot was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1910, the first of four daughters of John and Grace Crowfoot. She and her entire family were strong protagonists for world peace. Her marriage to Mr. Hodgkin was totally unsuccessful and thus her interests in science dominated the rest of her career. Using X-ray diffraction on crystals of biological substances, she developed the process of 'Protein Crystallography'. Using this new procedure she worked with cholesterol, penicillin, Vitamin B-12 and insulin. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. Due to the 'Cold War' she was not able to obtain a U.S. Visa until 1990 at which time she was 80 years of age. Althouigh, severely crippled with {arthritis;} she toured many U.S. scientific institutions as a lecturer on the examination of insulin using Protein Crystallography. She died of a stroke in 1994.

Which famous woman, in concert with her team at Burroughs-Wellcome Pharaceutical Company, synthesized 6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine (2 anti-leukemia {drugs);} allopurinol (for the treatment of {gout);} and acyclovir (for the treatment of herpes virus diseases)?

Gertrude Elion. She was born in 1918, entered Hunter College at age 15 and graduated Summa Cum Laude, In 1944 she joined Bulloughs-Wellcome(Now Glaxo) and quickly synthesized the two anti-leukemia drugs. She then discovered 'Imuran' which blocked the body's rejection of foreign tissues. Imuran plus other drugs enabled the successful transplant of kidneys from unrelated donors, without rejection. During her lifetime she received 25 doctorate degrees from different Universities. In 1988 Gertrude Elion shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology with George Hitchings, her colleague of 40 years, and with Sir James Black.

What is the name of the world famous, Albanian-born, Catholic nun, who trained in Dublin, Ireland and Darjeelig, India and founded the 'Missionaries of Charity' organization?

Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa was born in 1910 and christened Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhin. She joined the Order of the Sisters of our Lady of Loretto in Ireland at 18 years of age. In 1937, while in India, she took her religious vows. She then dedicated her life to caring for the unwanted people of her community, those who were sick, crippled or dying. In 1952 she opened the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Home for the dying. She extended her efforts to five continents.She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. On September 5, 1997 she died at age 87 years.

Which highly motivated woman dedicated her time, efforts and career to banning and clearing anti-personnel land mines?

Jody Williams. Jody Williams was working at a temporary job in Washington, DC. in 1981 when she was handed a leaflet that described the major problem of undetonated or defused world-wide anti-personnel land mines. This changed her from a lower level office worker to a global human rights activist. Working with Veterans Organizations and many others she recognized that 'When the war is over, the dying from land mines doesn't stop'. The huge number of land mines left behind by the military forces were killing and maiming thousands of civilians returning to their homelands. Together with Shawn Roberts she co-authored the book. 'After the Guns Fall Silent: The Enduring Legacy of Landmines'. In 1992 she led an international movement that created 'The International Campaign to Ban Landmines'. She personally travelled to war torn countries and risked her own life in mine fields. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

Which famous, highly honored woman, whose first language was Chinese, wrote 'East Wind, West Wind' as her first novel in 1925, which started her on a very successful writing career?

Pearl Buck. Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born in West Virginia in 1892 the 4th of seven daughters of two Presbyterian missionaries. After her birth the family returned to Chinkiang, China. Pearl returned to the United States in 1910 and graduated Phi Betta Kappa from Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia. She returned to China and in 1917 she married John Lossing Buck. Her only child, a daughter, was severely disbled by a genetic disorder and the marriage ended in divorce. Once again she returned to the U.S. to study at Cornell University. She wrote more than 100 books or articles but probably her most well-known book is 'The Good Earth'. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938. She had married Richard Day and they adopted six children. They lived at his Country Farm home and she continued writing until her death in 1973.

Which German-Swedish woman initially wrote romantic poems but then her writings changed to a Jewish theme, inspired by the tragedies of Jewish history?

Nelly L. Sachs. Nelly Leonine Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany in 1891. With the rising threat of Nazism she moved to Sweden in 1940, One of her great collections was entitled: 'O The Chimneys', which included the play, 'Eli'. She shared the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature with Israel writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon.

Which famous Italian-American woman was affiliated with the Institute of Cell Biology, Rome, Italy and made a major contribution to the understanding of the action of human growth hormone on peripheral nervous tissue?

Rita Levi-Montalcini. Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin, Italy in 1901. She was educated in the University of Turin Medical School. She majored in biology and studied the actions of human growth hormone. In 1986 she shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with her student, Stanley Cohen. She moved to the United states in 1947 and became a citizen of the U.S. in 1956.

Which Northern Irish-British woman was co-founder of an organization now known as, 'The Community Peace People'?

Betty Williams. Betty Williams was born in 1948 in Northern Ireland, U.K. Mrs. Betty Williams, Cravan McKeown and Miss Mairead Corrigan were the founders of the 'Northern Ireland Peace Movement' (renamed The Community of Peace People) She was awarded the the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Ironically, in 1977 she was fined {$} 55.00 for disorderly conduct at the Heathrow Airport, London, England.

Which famous woman, in partnership with Dr. Solomon Berson, developed a new analytical methodology called, 'Radioimmunoassay' and among other discoveries showed that in some adult diabetic patients, insulin was being blocked by the person's own immune system?

Rosalyn Sussman Yallow. Rosalyn Sussman was born in the Bronx, NY in 1921 of poor uneducated Jewish parents. She graduated from Hunter College with honors in physics and chemistry. Being Jewish and a woman she was unable to obtain admission to a medical school or get a scholarship from Purdue University. She took a job as teaching assistant in physics at the University of Illinois. In 1943 she married A. Aaron Yallow, a fellow physics student. From 1946 to 1950 she taught physics at Hunter College. Her unusual abilities were soon recognized and she went from an assistant in radioactive services to Head of the RIA laboratory to Research Professor at Mt. Sinai Hospital. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Albert Lasker Prize. She became a Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology in 1977.

What Nobel Prize category was the last to include a woman recipient?

Economics & Economic Science. Mathematics and Psychology are not Nobel Prize categories. The category of Economics was added in 1968 and there were no women Nobel Prize recipients in Economics until Elinor Ostrom won in 2009.

How many women have been named as a Nobel Laureate from the beginning in 1901 through the year 1999?

29. The Nobel Prize has been awarded to two (2) women in {Physics;} three (3) women in {Chemistry;} nine (9) women in {Literature;} six (6) women in Medicine or Physiology and ten (10) women in Peace. That adds up to {30;} but, Marie Curie is in two categories, Therefore, only 29 different women have received the Nobel Prize and many of those were shared with a man.