Biography of Emilie Du Châtelet, Enlightenment mathematician and physicist, is on Project Continua here!
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Emilie Du Châtelet
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by Elizabeth Pearce Emilie Du Châtelet (1706-49) The Marquise Du Châtelet was born Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil in Paris on December 17, 1706.[1] Her father, Louis Nicolas le Tonnelier de Breteuil served King Louis XIV as one of the noblesse de robe, men ennobled because of service to the king, while her mother,…
Annie Jump Cannon
By Lindsay Smith Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware on December 11, 1863, to Wilson Cannon, a shipbuilder, and his wife, Mary . Not much is known about Cannon’s early education, but it was her mother who introduced her to her first star constellations and encouraged her curiosity in astronomy. Together, they…
Hertha Ayrton
by Gina Luria Walker Phoebe Sarah Mark/Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923) transformed herself into Hertha Ayrton despite opposition to her sex, religion, poverty, inferior education, and poor health from the male culture of modern Physics. Born to a struggling Jewish watchmaker from Poland and his wife in Portsea, Portsmouth, Sarah quickly gave evidence of unusual intelligence.…
Hypatia
by Gina Luria Walker Hypatia 370–415 was a Greek scholar, daughter of a master teacher at the academy at the Great Library at Alexandria, Egypt. During her lifetime, Hypatia was renowned as a philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, and teacher, as well as a great beauty. She defied popular assumptions about women by wearing the black philosopher’s…
Laura Bassi
by Gina Luria Walker Laura Bassi (1711–1778) Laura Bassi’s achievements as experimental scientist, professor, wife, and mother were unprecedented, even in 18th Century Italy which enjoyed a unique tradition of learned women. Bassi was unusual in being from a middleclass family. She was educated at home by a male tutor who provided traditional training in…
