At just 33 years old, Caltech assistant professor Katie Bouman is already a veteran of two major scientific discoveries. The expert in computational imaging - - developing algorithms to observe distant phenomena - helped create the program that led to the release of the first image of a black hole in a distant galaxy in 2019. She quickly became something of a global science superstar, and was invited to testify before Congress about her work. Now, she has again played a key role in the creation of a groundbreaking image of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own Milky Way galaxy - a cosmic body known as Sagittarius A*. Her working group within the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, which revealed the stunning image, was tasked with piecing it together from the mass of data garnered by telescopes around the world.

By collaborating with other women, whether through informal mentorships and networks, building diverse lab groups or securing savvy co-authorships, female scientists can push back against the systemic barriers to female-led team research. Nobel laureates Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier first met at a 2011 conference in Puerto Rico, where both gave talks about a then little-known biological system called CRISPR–Cas9, which bacteria use as an immune defence. They immediately hit it off. “She was coming to CRISPR from a very different perspective than I was,” Doudna says. “And I liked her.” The two women began working together across fields and continents — Doudna is a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. Charpentier, a microbiologist, was at Umeå University in Sweden at the time. Over the next year, they adapted the CRISPR system to edit DNA in any species. The technique is now used to genetically modify organisms for everything from routine laboratory research to agricultural uses and cancer therapies. In 2020, Doudna and Charpentier became the first all-female team to win a Nobel prize, and only the second winning team to include more than one woman. Aside from winning science’s top medal, Doudna calls the collaboration with Charpentier “one of the great joys of my life”. Their complementary scientific expertise and commitment to the collaboration made the work enjoyable.

With an annual budget of $8.8 billion, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) advances research at U.S. colleges and universities and provides opportunities for science education from the precollege to postgraduate level. NSF has had a longstanding commitment to programs that increase participation of people underrepresented in science and technology, including women. One of the Foundation’s most prominent contributions in increasing the representation of women in science is its cross-directorate program for the advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers (ADVANCE), in which it has invested over $270 million since 2001. The Foundation has made a parallel investment in the advancement of women among its staff. Although only two women have been appointed to the top leadership position (not including acting directors) since the first NSF director was appointed in 1951, women today occupy top leadership positions in five of its seven directorates in disciplines spanning geosciences to engineering and as its chief operating officer. In addition, women occupy key positions on its advisory National Science Board, including the current chairperson. One of them is Dr. Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves.

Dr. Gauri Kulkarni, a regenerative medicine scientist at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, aims to "be the change she wishes to see." She is president of AWIS-North Carolina and is passionate about outreach, mentoring, and STEM education.

In her role as Chief Human Resources and Diversity Officer and throughout her career at Corteva Agriscience, she has been privileged to work with some of the most innovative and inspiring women in the science, technology, and agricultural fields. Every day, she see's women who are passionate about the role of science in feeding, fueling, and securing the world, strengthening communities, improving the environment, and empowering millions of farmers with the support they need to run healthy, viable, and sustainable businesses. While Corteva is still a young company (they were spun off from Dow and DuPont less than three years ago), they are maturing and unifying behind a powerful “culture of belonging” that is foundational to fulfilling our innovation, diversity, and equity (ID&E) aspirations. Read about four of the leaders - women who are advancing our ID&E initiatives, enhancing science, innovating agriculture, and inspiring colleagues and peers the world over.

In September 2021, Girls Who Code partnered with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to develop pathways for young women to pursue careers in cybersecurity and technology. This partnership seeks to tackle diversity disparities by heightening the awareness of cybersecurity and technology careers and working with employers to build tangible pathways for young women, especially young women of color, to get hands-on experience in the private sector and the non-profit sector or government. Their first collaborative initiative is a series of features of women who work in the cybersecurity field, including the exciting work CISA employees are doing. In this article they’re spotlighting Anisha Patel, Director of Program Management at Raytheon Technologies, where she helps lead a 400+ person workforce and manages the activities associated with the software development and Operations Maintenance necessary to maintain the security of large scale networks in use by the US Government.

Radiation can be dangerous, even deadly - but it has also saved millions of lives thanks to Irène Joliot-Curie's discovery of artificial radiation! Joliot-Curie, the daughter of Marie Curie, the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize, carried on her mother's legacy of scientific study. Joliot-Curie's groundbreaking research allowed scientists to produce 'designer' radioactive elements quickly and easily, making them widely available for use in research and medical treatment for the first time. This discovery won Joliot-Curie and her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935, cementing her place in scientific history - and making the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date.

“After working at 12 startups, and witnessing a lack of diversity at every one, I founded Girls in Tech with a singular mission: to end the gender gap in tech by institutionalizing the same networking opportunities that helped me.” said Adriana Gascoigne. Here’s why diversity matters, now more than ever: A lack of diversity hurts products and services as well as company culture and performance, Diverse companies are better able to adapt and thrive as consumer populations change. Companies close to gender parity for top-ranking positions earn up to 50% higher profits than companies with fewer female executives. Tech has to do better by making real changes, specifically at the top. Read Adriana Gascoigne's op-ed to learn how simple changes can make a world of difference for women and underrepresented minorities in tech.

Christin Godale campaigns for bigger research budgets and better care for people with epilepsy. Christin Godale has lived with epilepsy since being diagnosed around the age of two. She credits neuroscience with saving her life and giving her a vocation; in 2016, she started a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. Godale advocates for neuroscience funding, as both a patient and a scientist.

Dr. Marguerite Thomas Williams was the first African-American to earn a PhD in geology. She enrolled in the Miner Teachers College and earned a certification and a scholarship to Howard University. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in science, then pursued a master’s degree in geology at Columbia University. She completed her doctorate at the Catholic University of America after successfully defending her dissertation on the contribution of deforestation and agriculture on the erosion of the Anacostia drainage system located in Maryland. She became a full-time professor at Miner Teachers College and taught evening classes at Howard, dedicating her life to education and making geology a more inclusive field.