This has long been part of everyday practice at DMG in terms of filling management positions. There has, however, been some catching up to do in other areas. For example, until recently our meeting rooms were named exclusively after male researchers and discoverers. So, we have used our new spaces in buildings 1 and 6 to honour the impact of women in science.
There are four notable female namesakes who we would like to briefly introduce to you here:
Ada Lovelace
Born in London in 1815, the mathematician developed an algorithm in 1843 that made history as the world’s first computer programme. While her work earned recognition by experts, she herself encountered hostility in her lifetime. It was only 100 years later that the programme was rediscovered and republished. In the 1970s, the programming language “Ada” was named after her in acknowledgement of her achievement.
Margaret Hamilton
While working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Margaret Hamilton developed the computer code that made the first moon landing possible in 1969. She programmed the navigation software for the Apollo 11 on-board computer, which consisted of 40,000 command lines printed in 17 volumes. The software proved to be a masterpiece, but the researcher was denied recognition for decades.
Rosalind Elsie Franklin
The English biochemist’s basic research was fundamental to understanding the molecular structure of ribonucleic acid. The research article she published together with her doctoral student Raymond Gosling in 1953 formed the basis for Watson and Crick’s decoding of DNA. While they received the Nobel Prize in 1962, neither Franklin nor Gosling was honoured. Franklin died of cancer four years before the Nobel Prize was awarded, most likely as a result of exposure to X-rays during her research.
Marie Curie
Born in Warsaw in 1867, the scientist is best known for her pioneering work in the field of radioactivity. She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize and the only person to be awarded Nobel prizes in two different scientific disciplines. She discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium together with her husband and went on to become a symbolic figure for female scientists worldwide.
Photos from left to right: Ada Lovelace, Margaret Hamilton, Rosalind Elsie Franklin, Marie Curie