The “Chinese Marie Curie,” Chien-Shiung Wu was born in 1912 in China. She attended the girls’ school her father founded, and studied physics at National Central U. in Nanjing. She attended grad school at Berkeley, taught at Columbia U., and joined the Manhattan Project, focusing on enriching uranium for the nuclear bomb. Her later research confirmed the theory of beta decay, disproved the “Parity Law,” and opened the way to “a whole new set of explanations of the atom, the world and the cosmos.”

Mary Golda Ross (Cherokee Nation), the first known Native American aerospace engineer, was a member of a top-secret team planning the early years of space exploration. Ross joined Lockheed in WWII, helping design the P-38 Lightning. During the space race, she was one of 40 engineers in the company's think tank later known as the Skunk Works. While focusing on missiles and space, Ross worked on the submarine-launched Polaris missile and the Agena launch vehicle, which carried payloads to space.

Grace Murray Hopper earned a PhD in mathematics from Yale. In 1943 she joined the US Navy Women's Reserve and worked at Harvard on the Mark I computer as one of the first programmers. By 1949 she was senior mathematician at what became UNIVAC Corporation. She invented a compiler that translated human instructions into commands used to run a computer, saying "The computer should learn how to respond to people."  During the Vietnam War Hopper rejoined the Navy, eventually rising to Rear Admiral.

Geologist and oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp launched a new era of Earth science when she mapped the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Tharp's 1957 physiographic map of the North Atlantic ocean floor was key evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics. "You could see the worldwide mid-ocean ridge and…that it coincided with earthquakes. The borders of the plates took shape, leading rapidly to the more comprehensive theory of plate tectonics."

As a child, Eugenie Clark’s daycare was the New York Aquarium, where she fell in love with ocean life. As an adult she conducted 72 submersible dives and more in Scuba gear—one of the only ichthyologists of her time studying sea life this way. Her talks about creatures in the Red Sea captivated audiences. Her book “Lady with a Spear” inspired the Vanderbilts to fund a lab, now known as Mote Marine Laboratory. She made her last dive at 92. A lifelong advocate, she changed the way we view sharks.

Astronauts must learn to control space sickness to function on mission. Dr. Patricia Cowings, a research psychologist at NASA's Ames Research Center, teaches them how. In 12 short sessions they learn to control as many as 26 physiological functions effecting motion sickness by watching their bodies respond on oscilloscopes. They learn to mentally evoke sensations like muscle relaxation to bring about physiological changes such as increased skin temperature or the release of muscle tension.

Dr. JoGayle Howard, a trailblazer in veterinary reproduction at the National Zoo, adapted human infertility treatments to breed endangered animals. In 1992 she performed the first successful artificial insemination of a clouded leopard. She brought black-footed ferrets back from the brink—producing 500 kits, starting with the last 18 individuals. She famously artificially inseminated the giant panda Mei Xiang, resulting in the birth of the Zoo's first surviving giant panda cub, Tai Shan.

Aquatic biologists have a faster, less invasive way to survey Chesapeake oyster reefs, thanks to technician Keira Heggie and Dr. Matt Ogburn. These scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD, devised a technique to collect photos and video underwater by strapping GoPro cameras to a PVC frame. They can survey five times more sites than if they had to use diving teams. You can see an underwater video the team captured of a striped blenny enjoying a reef.