The Untold Stories

Scotland's Women Inventors

Mathematicians, astronomers, virologists, surgeons — the women whose names belong on the wall.

Mary Somerville

1780–1872

Mathematician and astronomer; the word 'scientist' was coined for her.

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Williamina Fleming

1857–1911

Catalogued thousands of stars; discovered the Horsehead Nebula.

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June Almeida

1930–2007

Discovered the first human coronavirus.

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Marion Gray

1902–1979

Mathematician; the Gray graph is named for her.

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Maria Gordon (Ogilvie)

1864–1939

First woman awarded a doctorate from the University of Munich.

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Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

b. 1943

Discovered the first radio pulsars.

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Valerie Hunter Gordon

1921–2016

Inventor of the disposable nappy.

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Dr Marion Ross

1903–1994

Wartime radar physicist.

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Dr Margaret Fairlie

1891–1963

First female professor at a Scottish university.

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Elizabeth Fulhame

fl. 1780

Pioneer of catalysis and photochemistry.

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Isabella Elder

1828–1905

Philanthropist of women's education.

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Dr Elsie Inglis

1864–1917

Pioneer of women's medicine and wartime hospitals.

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Dr Sophia Jex-Blake

1840–1912

Led the Edinburgh Seven; opened medicine to women.

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Marjory Kennedy-Fraser

1857–1930

Collector and arranger of Hebridean folk song.

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Prof. Evelyn Telfer

contemporary

First to grow human eggs from precursor cells in the lab.

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