“Science” and “art” are often portrayed as “opposites” but Nina Chhita brings them together, producing beautiful illustrations to draw attention […]

Biochemist Roberta (Bobbie) F. Colman (1938-2019) passed away at the end of 2019, and while you might have missed the […]

If you want to learn about molecular biology, Dr. Lizabeth Allison is a good person to turn to – she […]

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born in London, England July 25, 1920 and despite a tragically short life (she died in […]

Astronaut and electrical engineer Christina Koch went for a dramatic finish to 2019 – on December 28, her 289th day […]

This WiSE Wednesday we honor the 2019 WiSE faculty mentor awardee, computational biologist and Associate Professor Dr. Molly Gale Hammell […]

In the early 1920s, hematologist Lucy Wills studied a blood disorder called prenatal macrocytic anemia, which was causing impoverished pregnant […]

If you watched the Breakthrough Prize (sometimes called the “Oscars for scientists”) last weekend – Dr. Virginia Man-Yee Lee likely […]

Ilona Banga was a Hungarian biochemist who co-discovered actomyosin – the actin/myosin combo that allows muscles to contract so you […]

Dr. Malika Jeffries-EL is a Professor of Chemistry at Boston University, performing exciting work developing organic semiconductors. Semiconductors are a […]

We’re so thrilled to announce that WiSE co-founder Jacqueline (Jackie) Giovanniello – ahem – I mean DOCTOR Jackie Giovanniello is […]

Barbara Low (1920-2019). Earlier this year, the scientific community lost one of its trailblazing female crystallographers, Dr. Barbara Low, who […]

Berta Karlik (1904-1990). When you think of female scientists and early research on radioactivity, you probably think of Marie Curie […]

Biochemist Dr. Susan Taylor, a Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is […]

We were saddened to hear about the tragic accidental death of theoretical particle physicist and University of Washington Professor Dr. […]

Paleontologist Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis, England in 1799. This region of England is part of what’s been […]

Radiochemist Dr. Vanessa Sanders is an assistant scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) who studies how different versions of chemicals […]

Chemist Dame Carol Robinson is President of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was recently (July 2019) awarded the Royal […]

Chemist Sharon Haynie has devoted her career to serving the world and her local communities through science, developing materials that […]

People are all a-Buzz about the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that put a man on the moon. […]

Camille Schrier is expanding the reach of science communication (“scicomm”) to an unexpected place – beauty pageants! This biochemistry student […]

If you were recently captivated by a mesmerizing video of a giant squid (only the second filmed in its natural […]

Patricia (Pat) Pukkila. It’s not just graduate students and post-grad scientists that can contribute to scientific discovery, and it’s not […]

Hundreds of scientists recently hailed from around the world to attend Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s 84th Symposium, this year centered […]

Christine Bear is a senior scientist and co-director of the SickKids Cystic Fibrosis Center in Toronto, Canada and a Professor […]

It is so important for scientists to be willing and able to communicate their scientific findings to the general public, […]

Molecular and developmental biologist Maria Jasin studies DNA repair and how the process is affected in certain cancers, and was […]

Mary Jane Osborn (September 24, 1927 – January 17, 2019). Early this year, the biochemistry and microbiology communities mourned the […]

Do you ever hear about a scholarship named after someone and focus on the money rather than the namesake? Well, […]

English Chemist Martha Annie Whiteley (1866-1956) campaigned for women to be admitted to London’s Chemical Society (the precursor to the […]

Molecular geneticist Lady Noreen Elizabeth Murray helped kick-start the genetic engineering revolution, studying how to cut and paste DNA and […]

World Malaria Day is April 25. Malaria is a parasitic infection that kills close to half a million people a […]

Congratulations to computational plant geneticist Dr. Doreen Ware for her promotion to Adjunct Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL)! […]

Biochemist Christine Dunham studies protein synthesis as an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Emory School of Medicine. I had […]

Talk about kitchen chemistry! Agnes Pockels was never formally trained as a scientist, but she turned dishwashing observations into influential […]

Mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck has spent her life uniting math and physics and the international community is now uniting to recognize […]

If you’ve taken a molecular biology class, the name “Okazaki” might sound familiar to you. Together with her husband Reiji, […]

Biotechnologist Dr. Hyat Sindi has dedicated her life to providing biomedical resources to those in need – and by resources, […]

Last week, we had the honor of hosting Dr. Ana Anderson as a McClintock lecturer. Dr. Anderson is a cancer […]

Ever wondered how plant cells talk to each other? Plant developmental biologist Dr. Keiko Torii has! And last week we […]

Many life-saving drugs, including those used to treat HIV & hepatitis, can have side effects that themselves can be life-threatening. […]

Agnes Matilda Kalibata is a Rwandan agricultural scientist and policymaker credited with helping lead an agricultural transformation in Rwanda as […]

Neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai is Director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. One of her many projects […]

When it comes to climate change, much of the focus is on temperature, but there are other important changes happening […]

Virologist and molecular biologist Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal was the first person to clone and sequence a virus of the type […]

January is National Mentorship Month. Mentoring is an often-underappreciated aspect of being a good scientist. Scientists rarely receive training in […]

Still looking for a New Year’s resolution? Skip the body-shaming and instead choose to help empower women by contributing to […]

In the excitement of the holidays, it might have been easy to miss the death of a scientific powerhouse, astronomer […]

In 1939, French radiochemist Marguerite Perey discovered francium, the last naturally occurring element to be found, in 1939 while working […]

Last Thursday we had the honor of hosting cell biologist Elaine Fuchs as a McClintock lecturer. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory […]

Today, MIT professor emeritus Dr. Nancy Hopkins is giving a special seminar at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), “Reflecting on […]

A new group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), DIAS (the Diversity Initiative for the Advancement of STEM), held its […]

Donna Nelson is a talented organic chemist in her own right, but she is better known for drawing evidence-backed attention […]

Are you aware of the work of Doreen Ware? Each fall, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory holds an In-House Symposium, where […]

Austrian-American cell biologist Angelika Amon received a 2019 Breakthrough Award in Life Sciences (the so-called “Oscars” of the science world […]

This week’s #WiSEWednesday honoree needs your help! Crystallography is sometimes described as a sort of “magic” because crystals often form […]

Jane Richardson invented the ribbon representation for protein structures and wins the award for most times honored with a WiSE […]

Elizabeth Roboz-Einstein (1904-1995) was a pioneer in the field of neurochemistry who identified a key component of the coating called […]

This WiSE Wednesday, we’re thrilled to bring you a profile of our very own DOCTOR Lital Chartarifsky – on Friday […]

While still in grad school at the University of Rochester, optical physicist (and now Nobel Laurette) Donna Strickland faced a […]

Frances Arnold won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry!!!! It was awarded for her work on directed evolution, and if […]

Trained as a physical anthropologist studying evolution, Kyle Marian Viterbo’s career has itself “evolved” – she now dedicates herself to […]

Janet Rideout (1939 - ) is an organic chemist and one of the scientists who discovered that azidothymidine (AZT) could […]

Clara Cynthia Benson (1875-1964) was a Canadian chemist and one of the first two women to earn a Ph.D. from […]

Nina Matheny Roscher (1938—2001) was an American chemist, historian, and advocate for women and minorities in science. Mentoring is an […]

Mary Locke Petermann (1908-1975). Ribosomes are powerful cellular machines that make proteins, and the scientist who first isolated and characterized […]

Chemical engineer Paula Hammond (nee Goodwin) was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1963 and earned a PhD from Massachusetts Institute […]

Arda Alden Green (1899-1958) was an American biochemist and protein-purifying pro who worked “in the shadows” of “big names” but […]

Geologist Florence Bascom (1862-1945) was the first woman to receive a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, but she had to […]

Marjory Stephenson (1885-1948). Much of what we know about metabolism (the buildup, breakdown, and recycling of biological molecules) was first […]

Physical chemist Anna Jane Harrison (1912-1998) was the first female President of the American Chemical Society (ACS), a beloved teacher, […]

Astrophysicist Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell detected the first pulsar while a graduate student. Last weekend (July 15) she turned 75, […]

Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) was the first female faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in toxicology and occupational […]

We first encountered this week’s #WiSEWednesday honoree at last summer’s WiSE BBQ (she was attending CSHL’s Chromatin, Epigenetics and Gene […]

As we prepare for our WiSE/CSHL Library & Archives Women-In-STEM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, we want to introduce you to one of […]

Last week, computational biologist Molly Hammell was promoted to Associate Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (@CSHLnews) - what better […]

DAME Frances Carolyn Saunders. Last week, the Queen’s Birthday Honors List was released and among the big “winners” was Dr. […]

Mary Peters Fieser (1909-1997) was an American organic chemist known for the words she wrote, the molecules she made, and […]

This #WiSEWednesday, we’re honoring one of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL)’s own: Dr. Camila dos Santos, who just received a […]

Marion Sewer (1972-2016) was a pharmacologist and Professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)'s Skaggs School of Pharmacy […]

Hertha Ayrton was the first woman proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society – I say “proposed as” not […]

Elisa Izaurralde (1959 – 2018). For the second week in a row, our #WiSEWednesday profile honors the life of a […]

This #WiSEWednesday we honor Susan Williams, an amazing marine ecologist and environmental activist whose life was tragically cut short last […]

Youyou Tu received the 2015 Nobel Award in Medicine “for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria” – and, […]

If you heard about last month's death of Louise Slaughter, it was probably in relation to her position as a […]

  Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898-1979) invented “invisible” glass, which GE loved to tout, but they didn’t bother to include her […]

Ruth Sager (1918-1997) pioneered the now-thriving field of “cytoplasmic genetics” but it took decades before her theories were accepted. Sager […]

You might have heard about the molecular imaging technique cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) because of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. […]

If you hear “Hershey” and think “Chase,” not “chocolate,” you might be a scientist. My hope is that, after reading […]

Mildred Cohn (1913-2009) developed methods to track the movement of atoms within cells and was the first female president of […]

Cellular and developmental biologist Caroline Dean studies the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms by which external temperature regulates the timing of […]

(1925-1983) is considered by many to be the founder of bioinformatics, a field that designs and applies computational methods to […]

Audrey Shields Penn was the first African-American woman to serve as acting director of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) […]

Zeloite: it’s not just a great Scrabble word; it’s also a type of microporous mineral with many uses, as shown […]

Veronica Rodrigues (1953-2010) was an influential neuroscientist who helped cultivate and gain recognition of a thriving biosciences community in India. […]

Last week, we were saddened to hear of the passing of biologist and HIV/AIDS crusader Mathilde Krim who, among other […]

On January 11, we hosted biochemical engineer Dr. Kristi S. Anseth as our first McClintock lecturer of 2018. In her […]

Born in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan in 1880, Kono Yasui grew up in a society built around the ideal of women […]

Michele Dougherty has never been to space in person, but as a Principal Investigator for the international Cassini spacecraft mission, […]

Last week we lost another great female scientist, structural biologist Carolyn Cohen, lovingly known by friends as “C2”. Cohen studied […]

Continuing our recognition of the importance of mentorship, this WiSE Wednesday we honor neuroscientist Catherine Dulac for both her “conventional” […]

It is ironic that Australia’s first female radio astronomer, a woman later held-up as a source of Australian pride, was […]

This WiSE Wednesday we honor this year’s WiSE post-doc mentor awardee, molecular biologist Dr. Sarah Diermeier-Herridge. The WiSE Mentorship Awards […]

You probably know about the BRCA1 gene and its link to breast cancer thanks to Angelina Jolie, but do you […]

This WiSE Wednesday we honor this year’s WiSE faculty mentor awardee, molecular biologist Dr. Linda Van Aelst. Scientists are often […]

As we at WiSE experienced firsthand teaching neuroscience to Girl Scouts last summer, sharing the joys of science with children […]

Isabella Karle (1921-2017). Last month we lost another great woman in science, crystallographer Isabella L. Karle, who helped develop methods […]

This special WiSE Wednesday, we revisit one of our past honorees as she visits us! Jane Richardson is a true […]

There are some scientists who can capture an entire room; one such person is this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, Dr. […]

Organic chemist Emīlija Gudriniece (1920-2004) was one of the first scientists to recognize the potential to produce fuel from vegetable […]

The lack of women among this year’s Nobel Prize winners has brought attention to the serious underrepresentation of women in […]

Representation matters. Case in point: this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree Dr. Patricia Bath, whose work both inside and outside the […]

Did you see Saturday’s Google Doodle and wonder what it was all about? The image, with “Google” spelled out in […]

Evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis transformed the way we think about the origins of life. Eukaryotic (plant, animal, and fungal) cells […]

Many researchers talk about “living and breathing” science – this metaphor is particularly apt for this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, […]

When the AIDS crisis struck, some tried to isolate themselves or ignore the problem – not this week’s WiSE Wednesday […]

The medical “breakthroughs” you read about on the news, while rightly celebrated, usually involve very expensive treatments for previously untreatable […]

Discrimination forced Tikvah Alper (1909-1995) to relocate frequently, but she found ways to pursue her scientific interests wherever she went, […]

Chances are, you’re reading this WiSE Wednesday profile with the aid of Wi-Fi. If so, you have this week’s honoree, […]

Some scientists find their life’s passion exploring the vast unknowns of the galaxies; others, like this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, […]

Alice Ball developed the first truly effective treatment for leprosy (Hansen’s disease), but you likely haven’t heard of her. In […]

Next month, people will turn their (guarded) eyes to space to see the solar eclipse. This week, we look back […]

Every day, scientists use math – whether it’s doing simple algebra by hand to determine concentrations of a solution or […]

Have you ever felt guilty “bothering” a scientist with your questions? Don’t! As this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, molecular biologist […]

Now recognized as one of the most brilliant astronomers of the twentieth century, credited with determining what stars are made […]

Ada Yonath was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to a family that struggled financially but was determined for her to […]

Many people associate “Ph.D” with academia, but a scientific degree can be useful in a wide variety of professions, as […]

Most of the women in science we have featured through WiSE Wednesday have done their work in a laboratory, but […]

She is credited with “saving the cotton industry” and saving the lives of Korean War soldiers. Who am I talking […]

Studying for my qualifying exam has been quite stressful, but, in the course of my literature review, I have come […]

Just as gender shouldn’t hold anyone back from achieving their dreams of scientific careers, neither should disability. Each week, through […]

Ever wonder how calico cats get their unique coloring? This week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, Mary F. Lyon, did, and she […]

You’ve probably seen the Periodic Table of Elements, but the table you learned about in school looks different from the […]

Bullet-proof vests, fireproof boots, durable canoes, cut-resistant gloves. What do these items have in common? They often contain Kevlar, a […]

As many scientists working long hours for limited pay can tell you, passion for science can be a stronger motivating […]

Women often suspend or upend their careers to follow their husbands to new jobs. In this case, however, he followed […]

Throughout history, the words used to describe women in science have all too often focused on their looks instead of […]

Diabetics around the world are kept alive thanks to the work of this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, Lydia Villa-Komaroff, who […]

Today’s WiSE Wednesday honoree is out to show that faith and science can coexist. Aerospace engineer Tahani Amer was raised […]

If you have ever taken a biochemistry class, you’ve probably heard of the Michaelis-Menten equation, co-discovered by this week’s WiSE […]

Today is a very special WiSE Wednesday because our honoree is here to visit us! Molecular biologist Carol Greider is […]

The intersection of Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day, and WiSE Wednesday calls for the honoring of a very special […]

Did you know it’s national engineering week? WiSE stands for “Women in Science and ENGINEERING,” so this WiSE Wednesday, we […]

These past couple of weeks, #womeninscience have been taking to Twitter to introduce themselves (check out #actuallivingscientist #dresslikeawoman). I have […]

African Americans remain largely underrepresented in STEM, but their contributions to the advancement of knowledge have been significant. Black History […]

In honor of last Friday’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, this WiSE Wednesday we honor a Holocaust survivor who went on to […]

We are so excited to welcome this week’s WiSE Wednesday honoree, neurobiologist Leslie Vosshall to CSHL today, and this short […]

Despite great advances in the inclusion of women in STEM, minority women, and Latinas in particular, remain severely underrepresented. This […]

You’ve likely heard about “Hidden Figures”, the film about the African American women behind the success of NASA’s mission to […]

This WiSE Wednesday, we honor another great female scientist we said goodbye to in 2016. Vera Rubin, born in Philadelphia […]

You’ve probably heard of Rosalind Franklin, the X-ray crystallographer whose work was crucial to solving the structure of DNA, yet […]

Antibiotics have saved countless lives, but they also have a dark side. Overuse of these drugs has led to the […]

If you watched the Breakthrough Prize awards ceremony last weekend, you might have noticed a striking gender imbalance. Of the […]

When you’re chasing a 4.0, each grade you earn may feel tremendously important. However, the most critical grade you receive […]

“Who will do science? That depends on who is included in the talent pool. The old rules do not work […]

In this week’s WiSE Wednesday, art meets science. Jane Richardson is a true “Renaissance Woman;” born in New Jersey in […]

While prominent politicians may question the existence of human-induced climate change, there is no doubt in Janna Haigh’s mind that […]

This WiSE Wednesday we pay tribute to a scientist, entrepreneur, leader, and role model we tragically lost last week. While […]

As you enjoy your Halloween candy next week, check out the wrappers to see if beet sugar is listed. If […]

Starting with the first blood tests you receive as a newborn, you have benefitted from the work of this week’s […]

This WiSE Wednesday we honor a woman who exemplified the values of citizen scientist. Despite not having a formal science […]