Women's Work

Eva Holder’s portrait of mathematician Emmy Noether.

In physics, Neother’s Theorem explains the connection between symmetry and conservation laws; it revolutionized abstract algebra and theoretical physics.

In history however, German mathematician Emmy Noether is a dogged portrait of women’s struggle to be recognized as the intellectual and academic equals of men. In 1898, the Academic Senate of the University of Erlagen declared coeducation would “overthrow all academic order.”

Despite Erlagen’s decree, Noether turned down a potential career path of teaching at all girls schools to work at the university level. She was forced to audit classes, rather than study as a full-time student, and had to get the individual permission of professors to attend their lectures.

She taught for seven years at the university without pay before finally getting a position at Gottlingen, where her family had to pay her room and board, and all of her lectures were credited to a male colleague, David Hilbert.

(In truth, I was—at first—going be flippant and say “some dude” but it turned out he has at least six mathematical concepts named after him.)

Even after providing her groundbreaking theorem, still celebrated and studied today, Noether’s efforts to be recognized as a tenured professor were met with a nice letter from the Prussian Minister of Science, Art, and Education (one of the original STEMlords) basically saying, “Hey, how about we give you an upgraded title instead of paying you.” (Which would later become the foundation of all modern American business management.)

Jaleen Grove's portrait of Maria Klawe.

Maria Klawe isn’t alone in her study and contributions to the “art gallery problem” (a visibility quandary in computational geometry based on trying to staff a museum with the fewest guards), but she is one of the few scientists to actually have her watercolors exhibited in said art gallery.

Klawe is the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College, where she has immensely increased the enrollment of women in computer science and gaming. She is a reknowned mathematician who has fervently advocated for women’s visibility and representation, creating CRA-W (The Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research) and serving as a trustee of the Anita Borg Institute of Women and Technology.

In searching for patterns and testing her hypotheses, some of the first research ever conducted was on the original Super Mario Bros. In fact, according to PBS, she has been “addicted” to several video games  including Flight Control HD, Final Fantasy, and Prince of Persia.

Klawe has a PhD in Mathematics, honorable doctorates from eight universities, and has served on the board of Microsoft.

Allison Ranieri illustrated Christine Klymko for Women’s Work!

Christine Klymko is a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at The Center for Applied Scientific Computing where she addresses a little problem known as “national security.”

Klymko’s work at The Center combines high-performance computing, computational physics, numerical mathematics, computer science, and data science resulting in the kind of delectable gumbo-intel that both the physical science and intelligence communities are vying for.

Janna Morton’s rad portrait of mathematician Marjorie Lee Browne!

Marjorie Lee Browne did it by the numbers. The third African-American woman to earn her PhD in mathematics, her dissertation “Studies Of One Parameter Subgroups Of Certain Topological And Matrix Groups,” is basically 50 pages of telling the seemingly esoteric to open up and say, aahhhhhhh.

Browne actively worked to encourage math education for women and racial minorities. Her $60,000 circa 1960 grant from IBM enabled her to create an electronic digital computer center for North Carolina Community College (a historically black university). These computers are believed to be among the first to be used for academic research, and definitely mark the first for a historically black educational institution.

She’s also the first recipient of the W. W. Rankin Memorial Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education for “helping to pave the way for integrated organizations.”

Rachel Merrill drew a portrait of Kat Rocha!

Who says a brilliant techie can’t also be crafty with an embroidery needle? Not Kat Rocha, that’s for damn sure.

When not leading a team testing software for hospitals at Crimson/The Advisory Board, Rocha manages Cross Eyed Kat, a business specializing in—yes—embroidery designs.

Celine Loup’s portrait of mechanical design engineer Carrie M. Ballester.

A mechanical design engineer and veritable wunderkind for Lockheed Martin, Carrie M. Ballester has had her nimble mind and deft hand at the leadership and management helm of some of the country’s most important defense projects.

The former Mechanical Lead for the Navy’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer (read: Incredibly Powerful Stealth Ship) program, she’s now the Joint Strike Fight Sustainment Program Manager, leading a team overseeing support equipment for a little aircraft known as the F-35 stealth fighter plane.

Lucy Haslam’s portrait of Veronica Santos.

Dr. Santos is basically a scientific sorcereress, poised to revolutionize the (failing or broken) human body.

She is a leading expert in fields ranging from hand biomechanics, neural control of movement, prosthetics, tactile sensors, and machine learning, and serves as the director of the University of California Los Angeles Biomechatronics Lab, which is “dedicated to improving the quality of life by enhancing the functionality of artificial hands and their control in human-machine systems.”

The lab is devoted to understanding reflex-like grip responses in hands, the neuromuscular control of multiple digits during manipulation tasks, and tactile sensor technology that can provide feedback for real-time control of artificial fingertips.

Alanna Stapleton draws Ayanna Howard!

You’re decidedly not cool until Ayanna Howard designs a robot to measure how you’re coping with global warming.

The founder and director of Human-Automation Systems Lab has an honorary PhD in OMG and an actual PhD in Electrical Engineering, which she earned from the University of Southern California.

Howard describes her work as “centered around the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems.” (Remember those “It’s thinking!” commercials for the Sega Dreamcast?)

Her research has translated to all kinds of manifestations, from robotics that help us humanoids in our humble domiciles to rovers exploring glaciers. She founded the Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Laboratory where she wrestles with an age-old axiom: What decisions and tasks are best completed by humans versus automated systems?

Kate Drwecka drew a portrait of founder of Ladies Learning Code, Heather Payne!

Code is at the core of our current configuration of “civilization”—the news you you read, the monthly box of snacks you eat, even the dates you go on are in some way connected to and contingent on the tools programming is able to make manifest.

It is farce to imagine that language, of any sort, is inherently neutral; those who create and utilize the language influence it indelibly. This is why it is important—nay, imperative—that women are given space to learn, practice, and create code.

Just who is fighting this good fight you ask? Heather Payne, CEO of HackerYou and founder of Ladies Learning Code.

Nechama Frier’s portrait of Susan La Flesche Picotte!

Raised on the Omaha Indian Reservation in northeast Nebraska, Picotte was the youngest of four daughters of Chief Joseph La Flesche of the Omaha tribe—”Iron Eyes”—and his wife Mary Gale (One Woman).

When Picotte was a little girl, she watched in horror as a sick American Indian woman died because the white local doctor wouldn’t care for her. And just like that, the seeds for an illustrious, barrier-breaking medical career were sown.

In 1899, Picotte became the first American Indian woman to get a medical degree and practice as a physician. Picotte was also a teetotaler (she campaigned heavily to prohibit alcohol on her reservation), a tuberculosis fighter, and a prolific doctor who served more than 1,300 people over 450 square miles.

Just two years before she died in 1913, she opened a hospital in the reservation town of Walthill, Nebraska, which to this day still serves the local population and houses a museum dedicated to Picotte and her tribe.

Yao Xiao’s portrait of Yuxi Liu!

If you’re ever curious about the nuances of protein design and engineering, turn to Yuxi Liu.

A biotechnology PhD candidate at University of California Los Angeles, Liu is a science wunderkind who’s taught classes with names like, “From Finite to Infinite: Computational Design of Self-Assembling Protein Tetrahedrons and 2D Crystalline Layers Based on Symmetry Operations.”

Roxanne Palmer drew Natalia Rybczynski!

Dr. Natalia Rybczynski is a paleobiologist specializing in evolutionary functional morphology, specializing in creatures who once thrived in polar climes.

In short? She is an expert on animals and plants that inhabited the Arctic millions of years ago; in reconstructing our wilder and woolier pasts using hindcasts (yes, that’s the opposite of forecasts), Rybczynski is able to trace the intricate unfolding of our world’s current biodiversity and help predict the future.

In 2007, Rybczynski led a team of researchers to Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic where they found the “missing link” between land-dwelling mammals and pinnipeds (carnivorous aquatic creatures like seals or walruses.)

Yes, Rybczynski found a walking seal and its been dubbed the Puijila Darwini. (In honor of Charles Darwin).

Sophia Paas-Lang illustrates Sheila Colla.

You’ve all been following this bee “situation” right? It’s not pretty. They’re disappearing (particularly the European honeybee, but bumblebees too) and it’s basically a devastating ecological disaster; pollinators contribute more than 24 billion dollars to the American economy through the pollination of our copious crops.

Happily, biologist Dr. Sheila Colla is on the case. Colla is a freshly minted doctor who graduated from York University in 2012 whose PhD work assessed the conservation status and ecological requirements for western North American bumblebees; her research led to the Rusty-patched bumblebee being listed as endangered in Canada.

Colla has worked alongside a bevy of non-governmental organizations and government agencies to foster newfound conservation and she is currently the North American Coordinator (alongside Dr. Robbin Thorp) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature SSC Bumblebee Specialist Group and a Project Leader at Wildlife Preservation Canada. Colla hopes to rescue all our at-risk pollinators from the brink of extinction. (As well as America’s agriculture industry.)