Women Science Nobel Prize Winners
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi Is the 35th Woman Nobel Laureate
Oct 15, 2008
Each year, the Nobel committee sends individual invitations to thousands of professors and scientists in numerous countries around the word, asking them to confidentially propose nominees for the categories of Nobel Prizes for the following year. Then the Committee is responsible for selecting and listing the nominees.
2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine
Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, a French virologist who works at the famous Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, along with Luc Montagnier, also a virologist, shared this year’s prize for joint research, back in 1983, leading to the discovery of the Human Immunodefficiency Virus (HIV), that causes AIDS in humans. In addition, the prize was also shared by the German scientist, Harald zur Hausen, for his discovery of Human Papilloma Viruses (HPV) that causes cervical cancer in women.
For more details about this year’s Nobel Prize winners in Physiology and Medicine, see the article by Jamie Robertson.
Women And Science
Since 1903, the Nobel Prize Assembly has awarded its valued prize to more than 700 men, but only to 35 women. While the Nobel Prize has also gone to some 20 institutions around the world, it is striking to see the difference in the number of Noble prizes awarded based on gender alone.
It obviously does not mean that women are professionally less accomplished, but simply that there is a significantly higher number of men in senior research positions around the world. This is certainly the case for certain science disciplines were women comprise less than 10%. In addition, until the late 60s, women had to fight against social and educational pressure to be accepted in Research or teaching academic positions, or even simply to be able to register at University.
A case in point, Marie Curie was not even admitted to University in Poland, her birth country. To complete a teaching diploma, she came to France, where her determinism and passion for science made her famous.
Marie Curie Was the First Woman Nobel Laureate
Born as Maria Sklodowska, Marie Curie is the most famous Nobel laureate since she won two Nobel Prizes. First, in 1903, at the age of 36, Marie Curie has been awarded, with her husband, to Nobel Prize in Physics for her discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. Then, she received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, for the isolation of Radium, a radioactive element.
Women Nobel Laureates in Physics And Chemistry
After Marie Curie, only one woman, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, has been awarded to the Nobel Prize in Physics, late back in 1963. Two other women, the daughter of Marie Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie, and Dorothy Crowford Hodgkin were also laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1935 and 1964, respectively. Irene Joliot-Curie was recognized for her work on radioactive elements while Dorothy Crowford Hodgkin was rewarded for her determinations of the structures of biochemical substances.
Women Nobel Laureates in Physiology And Medicine
The first woman Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was given in 1947 to Gerty Cori for her joint discovery of the catalytic conversion of glycogen, an important source of energy in animal cells. Although, we had to wait 30 years before seeing another woman receiving a Nobel Prize in Medicine, seven other women in 1977 (Barbara Mc Clintock), 1986 (Rita Levi-Montalcini), 1988 (Gertrude Elion), 1995 (Christiane-Nusslein-Volhard), 2004 (Linda B Buck) and finally 2008 (Françoise Barré-Sinoussi) received this high recognition for their achievement in medical science.
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