The Nobel Prize Awarded Women

In 1903, two years after the Nobel Foundation was established, a Noble Prize was awarded to a woman, for the first time. Many women have won the Nobel ever since.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie a French physicist was famous for her work on radioactivity, and was twice a winner of the Noble Prize. In 1903, she became the first woman to win the prize for Physics, which she shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903. In 1911, she was awarded the prize again for Chemistry.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa maiden name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born in Skopje, Macedonia , she came to India in 1928. She was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women. Guided by a deep inner call, she established the Missionaries of Charity in 1905, and devoted her life to the service of the needy. She was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and the Noble Peace Prize in 1979.

Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing a Noble Laureate in Literature, 2007, published her first novel in 1950 named, The Grass is Singing. Her semi - autobiographical novel, The Golden Notebook (1962) , is one of her most widely read works. She is now widely regarded as one of the most important post-war writers in English. She has won over fifteen awards for her contribution to the English Literature.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of the opposition to the ruling military government in Myanmar. She focused international attention to the struggle for human rights and the restoration of democracy in her country. Her published works includedFreedom from Fear, and Other Writings, 2nd ed. (1995; reissued 2010), andLetters from Burma(1997; reissued 2010). An advocate of non - violent protest, she was under house arrest in Yangon when she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991.

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai was the first woman in the East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. A Noble Peace Prize winner, she is internationally recognised for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights, and the environmental conservation. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977 respectively. In both cases, she was the first woman to attain those positions in the region.

Francoise Barré - Sinoussi

Francoise Barré - Sinoussi shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen. Her research focused on a particular group of viruses, the retroviruses. Her work in this field led to the discovery of the AIDS virus in 1983. She started her own laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in 1988. In July 2012 she became President of the International AIDS Society.