Superwomen
As the world celebrates International Women’s Day on 8 March, we are excited to bring you a jam-packed issue with interviews on women in science; a company group chairman of a pharmaceutical MNC, a neuroscientist, a medical robotics scientist, and a biomedical scientist turned bioengineer.
Women have made significant contributions to science from the earliest times. Yet, despite this, women often find themselves at odds with expectations held towards them in relation to their scientific studies. This has deterred many women from working in STEM fields, and demanded a lot of tenacity from those who decide to stay.
Here are three of our favourite quotes from inspiring women who have faced incredible odds yet contributed tremendously to science and the many generations after them.
Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.
- Gertrude B. Elion, biochemist who developed medications to treat leukemia, malaria, herpes, etc., Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1988)
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
- Marie Curie, radioactivity work and discovery of polonium and radium elements, Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) and Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)
There is only one thing worse than coming home from the lab to a sink full of dirty dishes, and that is not going to the lab at all!
- Chien-Shiung Wu, contributed to the Manhattan Project, disproved ‘the conversation of parity’ physics law by proving that identical nuclear particles do not always act alike, Wolf Prize in Physics (1978)
They shared a common mindset: set your mind to it and nothing else should deter you from that path. |