links to poems

Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science. With a foreword by Pippa Goldschmidt and illustrations by Kristin DiVona of NASA’s Reach Across the Stars project. London: Gold SF, 2022. Paperback, $20. ISBN 9781913380489.

The Path of Most Resistance: Poems on Women in Science. Illustrated by Kristin DiVona. London: Gold SF, May 2025. Paperback, $19.95. ISBN 9781915983275.

blurbs

“Wonderful, imaginative, lively, angry in a good way” — Nancy Hopkins

“The only good science fiction poems ever written are by Jessy Randall.” — Annalee Newitz

“I never get tired of learning about women who achieved great things despite obstacles. There are so many of them — and so many of them did not get their due.” — Katha Pollitt

“A must for lovers of poetry and science alike!” — Emily Hockaday

reviews of The Path of Most Resistance

“Profound but also accessible … As often as they make you laugh, Randall’s words will have you searching for a pillow to scream into.” — Jamie Siebrase, Rocky Mountain Reader

reviews of Mathematics for Ladies

“For science readers who love poetry, poetry readers who love science, and feminists and students of all ages.” — Library Journal, September 22, 2022

“Secondary schools where there is interest in STEM projects, poetry studies, and women’s issues will benefit by adding this multifaceted title to their library or classroom collection.” — School Library Journal, October 28, 2022

“Thought provoking…we are lucky to have this charming book.” — Barbara Keyfitz, AWM Newsletter

“[P]lain spoken, direct, and spare … welcoming to non-scientists … a nice package” — Stephen Payne, The Friday Poem

“Every [poem] made me want to know more about the woman and her work!” — Kathleen Kirk

“Fascinating, at times rage-inducing but always entertaining and engaging … highly recommended” — Jackie Law

“A mix of reverence and vicarious irreverence, outrage and bemusement, anger and equanimity, pride and cheerful self-effacement” — Stuart Kelter

Longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association award in nonfiction, 2023.

readings, interviews, panels, etc.

2026 readings: Texarkana, USA and Toulouse, France.

Her Maths Story piece on Annie Jump Cannon and Nina Bari, September 17, 2025.

Colorado College Visiting Writers / library book launch, Tutt Library, September 16, 2025.

Oak Bluffs Public Library, Martha’s Vineyard, Saturday, June 28, 2025.

“Delving In” interview with Stuart Kelter, May 2025.

York County Senior College reading, Path of Most Resistance, March 19, 2024 (virtual).

Womanthology podcast, May 16, 2024.

Reading, American Association of University Women annual meeting, Colorado Springs, May 3, 2024.

Lost Women of Science podcast, May 2, 2024.

Reading, Pikes Peak chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society, August 15, 2023.

Interview with T.D. Walker, Interstellar Flight Magazine, July 7, 2023.

Reading, American Association of University Women, March 17, 2023.

R Gallery, Boulder, Colorado, Tuesday, February 21.

Hitchcock Project interview with Dina Wood, December 23, 2022.

When It Changed: Women in SF/F Since 1972 panel discussion, Saturday, December 3, 2022, Science Fiction Foundation, University of Glasgow.

“Delving In” radio interview with Stuart Kelter, November 13, 2022. 2nd place, New Mexico Press Women Communications Contest, 2023.

Feature article in Library Journal, October 2022.

Colorado College Visiting Writers Series, October 11, 2022, South Hall, 4:30 reception, 5:00 reading, free books to first fifty guests.

Una McCormack reads “First Scientist” on BBC4 Radio at the 39:36 mark, October 6, 2022.

Rattlecast reading and interview, September 19, 2022 (video).

Home-made five-minute promo for the Pikes Peak Library District’s Author Showcase, July 2022.

Interview with the founders of Gold SF at the Analog blog, June 2022.

York County Senior College presentation, February 23, 2022.

Colorado College “Irons in the Fire” presentation, May 2021.

Normal Public Library “Poetry is Normal” illustrated presentation, March 2021.

links to poems

chronological by birth year
*Mathematics for Ladies
**The Path of Most Resistance

*First Scientist (? – ?) in Analog
**Tapputi-Belatekallim (ca. 1200 BCE) in Star*Line
**Pandrosion (ca. 300-360) in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
**Hypatia (ca. 360-415) in Snakeskin
**Trota of Salerno (ca. 11th-12th century) in Escape into Life
*Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
** Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (1615-1691) in Analog
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)
*Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)
*Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749) in Escape into Life
*Laura Bassi (1711-1778)
Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774)
*Maria Gaetana, the Witch of Agnesi (1718-1799) in Redheaded Stepchild
**Jane Colden (1724-1766) in Eclectica
*Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) in Poetry Northwest
*Wang Zhenyi (1769-1797) in Escape into Life
*Marie-Sophie Germain (1776-1831) in Intersections
*Mary Somerville (1780-1872)
*James Miranda Barry / Margaret Ann Bulkley (ca. 1789-1865) in Escape into Life
**Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793-1884) in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change
**Anna Atkins (1799-1871) in Escape into Life
*Mary Anning (1799-1847) in Escape into Life
**Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) in Asimov’s (finalist for Readers’ Award)
*Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) in Escape into Life
**Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888) in Dreams and Nightmares
*Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) 1: Zuzu’s Petals, Injecting Dreams into Cows; 2: LCRW; 3: Sendecki
*Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (1822-1907) in Scientific American
*Mary Treat (1830-1923) in Ethel
*Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895) in Women’s Review of Books
*Rachel Bodley (1831-1888) in NAILED
**Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) in Escape into Life
*Josephine Garis Cochrane (1839-1913)
*Ellen H. Swallow Richards (1842-1911) Another Chicago Magazine
*Emily Roebling (1843-1903) in Dreams and Nightmares
*Sarah Frances Whiting (1847-1927)
**Ellen Eglin (before 1849-after 1890) in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change; Best of the Net finalist 2025
*Bertha Benz (1849-1944) in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
*Sofya Kovalefskaya (1850-1891)
**Ellen Hayes (1851-1930) in Diode
*Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923) in Analog
**Laura Hecox (1854–1919) in Eclectica
**Fanny Hesse (1858-1934) in Escape into Life
*Charlotte Angas Scott (1858-1931) in Escape into Life
*Alice Eastwood (1859-1953) in Escape into Life
*Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940)
*Nettie Stevens (1861-1912)
*Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) in Asimov’s, Colorado Encyclopedia, and Dwarf Stars
*Anna Wessels Williams (1863-1954) in NAILED
*Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1950)
**Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) in Strange Horizons
**Ida Gray (1867-1953)
**Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921)
*Marie Curie (1867-1934)
*Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963) in Strange Horizons (with audio)
**Maud Slye (1869-1954) in Poetry Northwest
*Ynes Mexia (1870-1938)
*Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972)
*Lise Meitner (1878-1968) in NAILED
*Agnes Arber (1879-1960) in Escape into Life
*Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
**Edith Clarke (1883-1959)
**Johanna Westerdijk (1883-1961) in Asimov’s
*Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974) in NAILED
**Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885-1975)
**Elsie Maud Wakefield (1886-1972) in Escape into Life
*Libbie Henrietta Hyman (1888-1969) in Women’s Review of Books
*Alice Ball (1892-1916)
**Sallie Pero Mead (1893-1981)
*Hilda Geiringer von Mises (1893-1973) in Diode
*Gerty Cori (1896-1957)
**May Edward Chinn (1896-1980)
**Elzada Clover (1897-1980)
*Joan Beauchamp Procter (1897-1931) in The Mom Egg
**Rachel Fuller Brown (1898-1980)
**Hilde Mangold (1898-1924) in Asimov’s
*Helen Taussig (1898-1986) in Asimov’s
*Charlotte Auerbach (1899-1994) in NAILED
**Roger Arliner Young (1899-1964) in Snakeskin
*Honor Fell (1900-1986) in Escape into Life
*Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979)
*Nina Karlovna Bari (1901-1961) in Strange Horizons
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)
Marion Gray (1902-1979)
**Mina Rees (1902-1997) in Snakeskin
**Flemmie Pansy Kittrell (1904-1980) in Eclectica
*Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906-1992)
*Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) in NAILED
*Frances Hamerstrom (1907-1998) in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
*Bertha Parker Pallan (1907-1978) excerpted in Library Journal
**Rachel Carson (1907-1964) in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
*Mary G. Ross (1908-2008)
*Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) in Diode
**Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012) in Star*Line
**Georgia Caldwell Smith (1909-1961) in Snakeskin
Laura Hunter Colwin (1911-2006) in Escape into Life
**Elizabeth Hayes (1912-1984) in Quail Bell Magazine
*Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) in Escape into Life
**Dorothy Bernstein (1914-1988) in Snakeskin
**Lois Jotter (1914-2013)
*Frances Oldham Kelsey (1914-2015)
**Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)
*Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
**Carolyn Attneave (1920-1992)
Helen Rodríguez-Trías (1920-2001)
*Marie Tharp (1920-2006) in Women’s Review of Books
**Ursula Franklin (1921-2016)
**Eugenie Clark (1922-2015)
**Odette Shotwell (1922-1998) in Quail Bell Magazine
**Beatrice Medicine (1923-2005)
**Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (1923-2025) in Eclectica
**Jewel Isadora Plummer Cobb (1924-2017) in Snakeskin
*Mary Ellen Rudin (1924-2013) in Escape into Life, reprinted in Van Vleck Vector, UNC-Wilmington’s math newsletter
*Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-2023) in Intersections and Pink Panther
*Fay Ajzenberg-Selove (1926-2012) in paper in Analog, reprinted in The Heartbeat of the Universe, online at the blog
**June Bacon-Bercey (1928-2019) in Utopia Science Fiction
**Margaret Kivelson (b. 1928) in Eclectica
*Helen Rodríguez-Trías (1929-2001)
**Carolyn Shoemaker (1929-2021) in Escape into Life
Mildred Dresselhaus (1930-2017)
**Gladys West (1930-2026)
**Joan Murrell Owens (1933-2011)
*Jane Goodall (1934-2025) in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change
*Roberta Eike (b. 1934)
*Raye Montague (1935-2018) in Zocalo Public Square
*Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943) in Another Chicago Magazine
**Lydia Villa-Komaroff (b. 1947) in Star*Line
Diana Garcia-Prichard (b. 1949)
**Mae Jemison (b. 1956) in Hog River
*Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017) in paper in Analog, reprinted in The Heartbeat of the Universe, and online here

alphabetical by last name

Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (1822-1907)
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove (1926-2012)
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917)
Mary Anning (1799-1847)
Virginia Apgar (1909-1974)
Agnes Arber (1879-1960)
Anna Atkins (1799-1871)
Carolyn Attneave (1920-1992)
Charlotte Auerbach (1899-1994)
Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923)
June Bacon-Bercey (1928-2019)
Alice Ball (1892-1916)
Nina Karlovna Bari (1901-1961)
James Miranda Barry / Margaret Ann Bulkley (ca. 1789-1865)
Laura Bassi (1711-1778)
Bertha Benz (1849-1944)
Dorothy Bernstein (1914-1988)
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
Rachel Bodley (1831-1888)
Rachel Fuller Brown (1898-1980)
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943)
Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)
Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963)
May Edward Chinn (1896-1980)
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (1923-2025)
Eugenie Clark (1921-2016)
Edith Clarke (1883-1959)
Elzada Clover (1897-1980)
Jewel Isadora Plummer Cobb (1924-2017)
Josephine Cochrane (1839-1913)
Jane Colden (1724-1766)
Laura Hunter Colwin (1911-2006)
Gerty Cori (1896-1957)
Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895)
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Mildred Dresselhaus (1930-2017)
Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)
Alice Eastwood (1859-1953)
Ellen Eglin (before 1849-after 1890)
Roberta Eike (b. 1934)
Honor Fell (1900-1986)
Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888)
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Ursula Franklin (1921-2016)
Maria Gaetana, the Witch of Agnesi (1718-1799) 
Diana Garcia-Prichard (b. 1949)
Hilda Geiringer von Mises (1893-1973)
Marie-Sophie Germain (1776-1831)
Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972)
Jane Goodall (1934-2025)
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-2023)
Ida Gray (1867-1953)
Marion Gray (1902-1979)
Frances Hamerstrom (1907-1998)
Elizabeth Hayes (1912-1984)
Ellen Amanda Hayes (1851-1930)
Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885-1975)
Laura Hecox (1854–1919)
Caroline Herschel (1750-1848)
Fanny Hesse (1858-1934)
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906-1992)
Libbie Henrietta Hyman (1888-1969)
Hypatia (ca. 360-415)
Mae Jemison (b. 1956)
Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (1615-1691)
Frances Oldham Kelsey (1914-2015)
Flemmie Pansy Kittrell (1904-1980)
Margaret Kivelson (b. 1928)
Sofya Kovalefskaya (1850-1891)
Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1950)
Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921)
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012)
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Hilde Mangold (1898-1924)
Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774)
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972)
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)
Sallie Pero Mead (1893-1981)
Beatrice Medicine (1923-2005)
Lise Meitner (1878-1968)
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)
Ynes Mexia (1870-1938)
Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017)
Maria Mitchell (1818-1889)
Raye Montague (1935-2018)
Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974)
Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
Joan Murrell Owens (1933-2011)
Bertha Parker Pallan (1907-1978)
Pandrosion (ca. 300-360)
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979)
Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793-1884)
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)
Joan Beauchamp Procter (1897-1931)
Mina Rees (1902-1997)
Ellen H. Swallow Richards (1842-1911)
Helen Rodríguez-Trías (1929-2001)
Emily Roebling (1803-1903)
Mary G. Ross (1908-2008)
Mary Ellen Rudin (1924-2013)
Charlotte Angas Scott (1858-1931)
Carolyn Shoemaker (1929-2021)
Odette Shotwell (1922-1998)
Maud Slye (1869-1954)
Georgia Caldwell Smith (1909-1961)
Mary Somerville (1780-1872)
Nettie Stevens (1861-1912)
Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940)
Effie Stroud (1909-1994)
Tapputi-Belatekallim (ca. 1200 BCE)
Helen Taussig (1898-1986)
Marie Tharp (1920-2006)
Mary Treat (1830-1923)
Trota of Salerno (ca. 11th-12th century)
Lydia Villa-Komaroff (b. 1947)
Elsie Maud Wakefield (1886-1972)
Gladys West (1930-2026)
Johanna Westerdijk (1883-1961)
Sarah Frances Whiting (1847-1927)
Anna Wessels Williams (1863-1954)
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)
Roger Arliner Young (1899-1964)
Wang Zhenyi (1769-1797)

American women of color

Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895) (Black)
Ellen Eglin (before 1849-after 1890) (Black)
Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1950) (Native American – Omaha/Ponca)
Ida Gray (1867-1953) (Black)
Ynes Mexia (1870-1938) (Mexican American)
Alice Ball (1892-1916) (Black)
May Edward Chinn (1896-1980) (Black)
Roger Arliner Young (1899-1964) (Black)
Flemmie Pansy Kittrell (1904-1980) (Black)
Bertha Parker Pallan (1907-1978) (Native American – Abenaki/Seneca)
Mary G. Ross (1908-2008) (Native American – Cherokee)
Effie Stroud (1909-1994) (Black)
Georgia Caldwell Smith (1909-1961) (Black)
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) (Chinese American)
Carolyn Attneave (1920-1992) (Native American – Delaware)
Eugenie Clark (1921-2016) (Japanese American)
Beatrice Medicine (1923-2005) (Native American – Sinasapa and Minneconjou Lakota)
Jewel Isadora Plummer Cobb (1924-2017) (Black)
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-2023) (Black)
Helen Rodríguez-Trías (1920-2001) (Latina)
June Bacon-Bercey (1928-2019) (Black)
Gladys West (1930-2026) (Black)
Joan Murrell Owens (1933-2011) (Black)
Raye Montague (1935-2018) (Black)
Lydia Villa-Komaroff (b. 1947) (Latina)
Diana Garcia-Prichard (b. 1949) (Latina)
Mae Jemison (b. 1956) (Black)

by STEM field (some names appear multiple times)

GENERAL SCIENCE / NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
First Scientist (? – ?)
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)
Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (1615-1691)
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)
Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)

ANATOMY
Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774)

ANTHROPOLOGY / ARCHAEOLOGY
Bertha Parker Pallan (1907-1978)
Beatrice Medicine (1923-2005)

ASTRONOMY
Hypatia (ca. 360-415)
Caroline Herschel (1750-1848)
Wang Zhenyi (1769-1797)
Mary Somerville (1780-1872)
Maria Mitchell (1818-1889)
Sarah Frances Whiting (1847-1927)
Ellen Amanda Hayes (1851-1930)
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921)
Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979)
Carolyn Shoemaker (1929-2021)
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943)

BIOLOGY
Fanny Hesse (1858-1934)
Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885-1975)
Gerty Cori (1896-1957)
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012)
Laura Hunter Colwin (1911-2006)
Jewel Isadora Plummer Cobb (1924-2017)
Lydia Villa-Komaroff (b. 1947)

BOTANY
Jane Colden (1724-1766)
Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793-1884)
Anna Atkins (1799-1871)
Rachel Bodley (1831-1888)
Mary Treat (1830-1923)
Alice Eastwood (1859-1953)
Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963)
Ynes Mexia (1870-1938)
Agnes Arber (1879-1960)
Johanna Westerdijk (1883-1961)
Elzada Clover (1897-1980)
Lois Jotter (1914-2013)

CHEMISTRY
Tapputi-Belatekallim (ca. 1200 BCE)
Ellen H. Swallow Richards (1842-1911)
Rachel Fuller Brown (1898-1980)
Alice Ball (1892-1916)
Gerty Cori (1896-1957)
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Odette Shotwell (1922-1998)
Diana Garcia-Prichard (b. 1949)

CLIMATOLOGY
Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888)

COMPUTER SCIENCE
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906-1992)
Dorothy Bernstein (1914-1988)
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-2023)

EMBRYOLOGY
Hilde Mangold (1898-1924)

ENGINEERING
Josephine Cochrane (1839-1913)
Emily Roebling (1803-1903)
Ellen Eglin (before 1849-after 1890)
Bertha Benz (1849-1944)
Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923)
Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972)
Edith Clarke (1883-1959)
Sallie Pero Mead (1893-1981)
Mary G. Ross (1908-2008)
Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)
Mildred Dresselhaus (1930-2017)
Raye Montague (1935-2018)
Mae Jemison (b. 1956)

ENTOMOLOGY
Mary Treat (1830-1923)

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
Elizabeth Hayes (1912-1984)

GENETICS
Nettie Stevens (1861-1912)
Charlotte Auerbach (1899-1994)
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)

GEOLOGY
Marie Tharp (1920-2006)

LIBRARY SCIENCE
Effie Stroud (1909-1994)

MARINE BIOLOGY
Roger Arliner Young (1899-1964)
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
Eugenie Clark (1921-2016)
Joan Murrell Owens (1933-2011)
Roberta Eike (b. 1934)

MATHEMATICS
Pandrosion (ca. 300-360)
Hypatia (ca. 360-415)
Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)
Maria Gaetana, the Witch of Agnesi (1718-1799) 
Wang Zhenyi (1769-1797)
Marie-Sophie Germain (1776-1831)
Mary Somerville (1780-1872)
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Sofya Kovalefskaya (1850-1891)
Ellen Amanda Hayes (1851-1930)
Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923)
Charlotte Angas Scott (1858-1931)
Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940)
Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
Hilda Geiringer von Mises (1893-1973)
Sallie Pero Mead (1893-1981)
Nina Karlovna Bari (1901-1961)
Mina Rees (1902-1997)
Marion Gray (1902-1979)
Georgia Caldwell Smith (1909-1961)
Dorothy Bernstein (1914-1988)
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (1923-2025)
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-2023)
Mary Ellen Rudin (1924-2013)
Gladys West (1930-2026)
Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017)

MEDICINE
Trota of Salerno (ca. 11th-12th century)
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
James Miranda Barry / Margaret Ann Bulkley (ca. 1789-1865)
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895)
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917)
Anna Wessels Williams (1863-1954)
Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1950)
Ida Gray (1867-1953)
Maud Slye (1869-1954)
Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885-1975)
Alice Ball (1892-1916)
May Edward Chinn (1896-1980)
Rachel Fuller Brown (1898-1980)
Gerty Cori (1896-1957)
Helen Taussig (1898-1986)
Virginia Apgar (1909-1974)
Elizabeth Hayes (1912-1984)
Frances Oldham Kelsey (1914-2015)
Helen Rodríguez-Trías (1929-2001)
Mae Jemison (b. 1956)

METEOROLOGY
June Bacon-Bercey (1928-2019)

MYCOLOGY (mushrooms, fungi)
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)
Elsie Maud Wakefield (1886-1972)

NATURAL HISTORY
Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (1822-1907)
Mary Treat (1830-1923)
Laura Hecox (1854–1919)
Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974)
Libbie Henrietta Hyman (1888-1969)
Frances Hamerstrom (1907-1998)

NUTRITION
Flemmie Pansy Kittrell (1904-1980)

ORNITHOLOGY
Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974)
Frances Hamerstrom (1907-1998)

PALAEONTOLOGY
Mary Anning (1799-1847)

PATHOLOGY
Maud Slye (1869-1954)

PHYSICS
Laura Bassi (1711-1778)
Marie Germain (1776-1831)
Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923)
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Lise Meitner (1878-1968)
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979)
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972)
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)
Ursula Franklin (1921-2016)
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (1923-2025)
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove (1926-2012)
Margaret Kivelson (b. 1928)
Mildred Dresselhaus (1930-2017)
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943)

PSYCHOLOGY
Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972)
Carolyn Attneave (1920-1992)

ZOOLOGY
Libbie Henrietta Hyman (1888-1969)
Joan Beauchamp Procter (1897-1931)
Roger Arliner Young (1899-1964)
Honor Fell (1900-1986)
Jane Goodall (1934-2025)

acknowledgments
Thank you, Barbara Whitten, Colorado College Physics / Feminist and Gender Studies, for your 2015 talk on Sarah Frances Whiting, which was the seed for this series of poems.
Thank you, Rebecca Barnes, Colorado College Environmental Studies, for your ongoing work on women in science, particularly the Women in STEM Wikipedia Biographies project with CC students.
Thank you to everyone who suggested subjects for poems and/or helped in other ways: Marianne Reddin Aldrich, Melissa Penwell Belanger, Aage Bendiksen, Anna Primrose Bendiksen, Bruce Harris Bentzman, Fiona Haser Bizony, Janice Frankel Block, Amy Brooks, Ginna Brooks, Heather Powell Browne, Greg Coxson, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Kristi Erdal, Paul Erickson, Re Evitt, Darcy Falk, Kathy Giuffre, Celia Gresham, Jennifer Gresham, Nicole Gresham, Ross Gresham, Julie Grisham, Sarah Hautzinger, Tali Herman, Sarah Healy, Kris Kanthak, Anju Kanumalla, Terry Kind, Kathleen Kirk, Sandra Knauf, Rebecca Laroche, Lisa Lister, Phoebe Lostroh, Eva Lovell, Andrea Lucard, Norah McCormick, Heather McHale, Sarah Milteer, Amanda Newman, Carol Newman, Josh Newman, Alexei Pavlenko, Arthur Porter, Katherine Randall, Amy Shuffelton, Jane Shuffelton, Alan Simon, Maxine Simon, Steve Simon, Dava Sobel, Bill Stoesen, Robert Stoesen, Margaret Towers, David Weinstock, Anna Wermuth, Barbara Whitten, Dina Wood, Cindi Zenkert-Strange.

works consulted
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selected novels, poems, plays, films, more
Mary Anning: Chevalier, Tracy. Remarkable Creatures: A Novel. New York: Penguin, 2016. Kessel, John. Pride and Prometheus. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Thomas, Joan. Curiosity: A Love Story. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2010. 2020 film Ammonite.
Mary Anning, Maria Sibylla Merian, Maria Mitchell: Atkins, Jeannine. Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science. Poetry. New York: Atheneum, 2016.
James Miranda Barry: Levy, E.J. The Cape Doctor: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown, 2021.
Bertha Benz: Haw, Penny. The Woman at the Wheel: A Novel. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2023.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Maria Goeppert Meyer, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Marie Tharp: oral history interviews in the American Institute of Physics (AIP) Niels Bohr Library & Archives digital repository.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Rachel Carson, Marie Curie, Barbara McClintock: “Affinities and Disturbances” site-based dance, Barnes Science Center, Colorado College, 2020.
Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt: “Silent Sky” 2015 play by Lauren Gunderson
May Chinn: Haulsey, Kuwana. Angel of Harlem: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2004.
Marie Curie: Redniss, Lauren. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout. New York: HarperCollins, 2016. Graphic novel. Adapted into the 2019 film Radioactive.
Rosalind Franklin: “Rosalind Franklin vs. Watson and Crick – Science History Rap Battle.” 7th grade students, KIPP Bridge Charter School, Oakland, California, 2013.
Hedy Lamarr: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2018 PBS documentary).
Maria Sibylla Merian: Diane Ackerman poem in Scientific American in 2020. She says in her bio note she’s working on a novel about Merian!
Beatrix Potter: 2006 film Miss Potter.
Emily Roebling: Wood, Tracey Enerson. The Engineer’s Wife: A Novel. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks Landmark, 2020.
Mary Treat: Kingsolver, Barbara. Unsheltered: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2018.