Women’s History Month
March 1, 2025
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we would like to highlight eight remarkable women who have made a lasting impact on healthcare and technology.
1. Gerty Theresa Cori, Ph.D., was the first U.S. woman to win a Nobel Prize in science. She and her husband, Carl, worked as equals, yet they were rarely treated that way. In 1922, Gerty and Carl began conducting biomedical research at the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases, where Gerty was warned she’d ruin her husband’s career if the two collaborated. That did not dissuade them, and they went on to publish dozens of papers together. The pair studied the body’s use of energy from food, arriving at the Nobel-winning Cori cycle that explained how glucose is metabolized, which was a key insight for the treatment of diabetes.
2. Isabel Morgan, Ph.D., was an important figure in
the race to develop a polio vaccine. After earning a doctorate in bacteriology, Morgan worked at the Rockefeller Institute for six years before being recruited to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her team sought to immunize monkeys against polio. Other preeminent virologists of the day believed a vaccine could only be achieved using a live virus, but Morgan thought otherwise. After five years of work, her team became the first to successfully create a killed-virus vaccine that was effective in animal models.
3. Evelyn Carmon Nicol was an immunologist and microbiologist. She was the first person to isolate the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles, in tissue culture. She was one of the first Black women to receive a patent for molecular biology. Other achievements included assisting with polio vaccine development by culturing the virus in HeLa cells; developing a test for Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis; and developing some of the first commercial test kits for HIV.
4. Nanette Kass Wenger, M.D., was one of the first physicians to study heart disease in women. Throughout her career, Dr. Wenger authored and co-authored more than 1,000 scientific articles and book chapters in the field of cardiology. Her scientific discoveries have played a significant role in reducing death and disability from heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for woman in the United States.
5. Valerie Thomas invented and patented the Illusion Transmitter. This device is a type of 3D display technology used in surgery. NASA used Thomas’s technology in its satellite technology. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, Thomas worked on numerous projects and became adept with computer technology. She contributed to Landsat image processing software systems, which deliver images of the Earth’s surface.
6. Donna Christensen, M.D., was elected as the delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1996. She was the first female medical doctor to serve in Congress. Dr. Christensen ran her own practice and began working as a health administrator, eventually becoming assistant commissioner of health for the Virgin Islands. While in office, she chaired the Congressional Black Caucus’ Health Braintrust. From that position, she continued to work to end health care and health insurance disparities for minority communities and women and fight against the HIV/AIDS threat.
7. Katalin Karikó, Ph.D., is a biochemist whose
groundbreaking research helped pave the way for the development of the COVID-19 vaccines. Originally from Hungary, Karikó emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s to pursue her research into the therapeutic prospects of messenger RNA (mRNA). She and her collaborator, Dr. Drew Weissman developed the mRNA technology that serves as the basis for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
8. Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., served as the
U.S. surgeon general from 2009-2013. Her legacy of achievement and advocacy stretches back to rural Alabama, where she practiced family medicine. She founded BayouClinic in rural Alabama, providing care to underserved patients. During her tenure as surgeon general, Dr. Benjamin focused on health promotion and disease prevention, in addition to overseeing 6,000+ public health officers worldwide.
Learn More:
6 Black Women Who Changed Healthcare History – HealthyWomen
Five inspiring women who have shaped health care- MultiCare Vitals
Black Women Who Made Major Contributions to Health & Medicine
Celebrating 10 women medical pioneers | AAMC
Celebrating Women in Public Health | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health