Welcome to the April edition

Written by Keelie Munroe

Published April 2023

Wednesday 8 March 2023 marked International Women’s Day and whilst that was nearly a month ago, I didn’t want to let this opportunity to celebrate some of the fabulous women who made their mark in Chemistry pass us by completely.

I’m not the first to write on this topic, and hopefully not the last. Given this has been well documented in the past, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, but rather take some of what I consider to be the highlights and bring them to light in this edition.

For you Organic Chemists out there, Irma Goldberg (born 1871) is noted as the only female to be recognised unambiguously with her own named chemical reaction – the Goldberg reaction – which involves the reaction of an aniline with an aryl halide. She had a successful career where she was able to quote her own name in publications, something very rare during her era.

You may have seen before the Women of the Periodic Table graphic that was put together by Andy Brunning/Compound Interest (https://www.compoundchem.com/2020/02/10/women-periodic-table/ ), but this highlights 9 women who played a big part in the discovery of our elements. Many of these played a behind the scenes role, but Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Lise Meitner (1878 – 1968) had elements named after them – Meitnerium (Mt) and Curium (Cm).

In addition to Marie Curie’s notability around the Periodic Table, she is also the first Woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize across two different sciences (Physics and Chemistry). The Curie family has a Nobel prize legacy - Marie’s husband jointly won with her in 1905, and their daughter Irene Joliot-Curie (1897 – 1956) jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband for their discovery and work on artificial radioactivity.

Stephanie Kwolek (1920 – 2014) is a chemist known for inventing Kevlar. She discovered the first of a family of synthetic fibres that had incredible strength, poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide. She was working for DuPont, where she worked for more than 40 years, and won numerous awards for her work in polymer chemistry.

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was a chemist and X-ray Crystallographer whose work led to better understanding of the molecular structure of DNA. She is sometimes referred to as the “wronged heroine” or “dark lady of DNA” as her contribution to the structure of DNA wasn’t recognised until after her death.

I could go on and on with further examples of how women have shaped the history of chemistry, often times going unrecognised. Which is why I also wanted to recognise the wonderful female chemists who contribute to the WA Branch of the RACI, where they too often go unnoticed. A big thank you (in no particular order) to Paula McLay (Newspaper Editor), Vicky Barnett (Treasurer), Tamsin Collins (Past-President), Alex Yeung (WinC Group Chair), Varshini Kumar (ECC Group Chair), and Elodie Rousset.

Go to back to Newsletter