4 women whose work won the Nobel prize for their male colleagues

 Throughout history, female scientists have made groundbreaking discoveries that have contributed to the betterment of humankind. To celebrate Women’s History Month, this Special Feature looks at some of the most influential female scientists who never received a Nobel Prize for their work. Instead, the Prize landed in the hands of their male colleagues.

The Nobel Prize is a coveted honor granted to individuals in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature, and peace. The award goes to those who, by decree of Alfred Nobel in his will, “have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”

A Nobel Prize committee, which comprises five people whom the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) have elected to the position, select the recipients of the award. The current Nobel committee members include three women: Berit Reiss-Andersen, Anne Enger, and Kristin Clemet. Two men, Jørgen Watne Frydnes and Asle Toje, make up the committee.

From the first Nobel Prize award in 1901 to the most recent in 2020, only 57 women have received this honor.

This list of female laureates includes Marie Curie, who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Curie actually obtained the Prize twice, receiving it in Physics in 1903 and then in Chemistry in 1911.

Many female scientists have made equally outstanding contributions that should have resulted in a Nobel Prize award, but they never became laureates.

Instead, male colleagues took the credit and subsequently received the Nobel Prize.

In other instances, Nobel committees perhaps overlooked these women’s accomplishments at the time.

Who were these women who bestowed a great benefit on humankind yet, perhaps because of unfounded social inequities, never earned a Nobel Prize? Below is a comprehensive list of women in science who, in their lifetime, never became Nobel Prize laureates for their accomplishments.

Source: Medical News Today