Medicine
STEM helps doctors discover new treatments and keep people healthy.
What is STEM
What is STEM?
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. These subjects help us understand the world and solve real problems.
Science
Understanding how the natural world works, from tiny cells to enormous galaxies.
Technology
Creating tools, computers, apps and systems that help us communicate and solve problems.
Engineering
Designing and building structures, machines, and solutions to everyday challenges.
Mathematics
Using numbers, patterns and logic to understand everything from money to music.
Why it matters
Why does STEM matter?
Clean Water
Engineers and scientists make sure clean water reaches communities everywhere.
Technology
Phones, apps and the internet connect us thanks to STEM.
Transport
Trains, planes and cars are designed by engineers to help us travel safely.
Climate Science
Scientists study our planet so we can protect it for the future.
Space Exploration
STEM lets us explore the Moon, Mars and the wonders beyond.
STEM is for everyone
STEM isn't just lab coats!
STEM careers are not only about scientists in white coats. They look like all sorts of things.
Game Designer
Marine Scientist
Software Engineer
Civil Engineer
Robotics Builder
Data Scientist
Environmental Scientist
Aeronautical Engineer
Women who changed STEM
Real women whose discoveries changed everything - though not all got the recognition they deserved.
Marie Curie
Physics & Chemistry, Poland/France
The first woman to win a Nobel Prize - and the only person ever to win it in two different sciences. Her research on radioactivity changed physics and chemistry forever.
Ada Lovelace
Mathematics, UK
Often called the world's first computer programmer, Ada wrote instructions for a calculating machine in the 1840s - nearly a century before computers existed.
Rosalind Franklin
Chemistry & Biology, UK
Her X-ray photographs were crucial to discovering the structure of DNA. Sadly, she wasn't given credit for this at the time.
Katherine Johnson
Mathematics, USA
A brilliant mathematician whose calculations helped NASA send astronauts safely to the Moon. Her story was made into the film Hidden Figures.
Hypatia
Mathematics & Astronomy, Egypt
One of the earliest known female mathematicians, who lived over 1,600 years ago in Alexandria and taught philosophy and astronomy.
Chien-Shiung Wu
Physics, China/USA
Her experiments proved a major physics theory, but two male colleagues received the Nobel Prize for it instead.
Dorothy Hodgkin
Chemistry, UK
Used X-rays to map the structures of molecules including penicillin and insulin - work that transformed medicine.
Lise Meitner
Physics, Austria/Sweden
Co-discovered nuclear fission, but her male colleague received the Nobel Prize while she was overlooked.
Mariam al-Ijliya al-Asturlabi
Astronomy & Instrument-Making, Syria
Built astrolabes, the navigation tools of her era, for a royal court in the 10th century - a thousand years before engineering was open to women elsewhere.
Janaki Ammal
Botany, India
Bred a sweeter, hardier variety of sugarcane that transformed Indian agriculture and spent her career documenting the country's plant diversity.
Mary Golda Ross
Aerospace Engineering, USA (Cherokee Nation)
The first known Native American female engineer, she worked on early interplanetary flight concepts at Lockheed decades before spaceflight existed.
Gladys West
Mathematics, USA
Her orbital calculations became the mathematical foundation of GPS, though her contribution went largely unrecognized for decades.
Tu Youyou
Pharmaceutical Chemistry, China
Discovered artemisinin by studying centuries-old Chinese medical texts, creating the most effective malaria treatment in history and winning a Nobel Prize despite having no PhD or overseas training.
Sau Lan Wu
Particle Physics, China/Hong Kong
Has contributed to three of physics' biggest discoveries, including the Higgs boson, across an extraordinary 50-year career.
Wangari Maathai
Environmental Science, Kenya
Founded the Green Belt Movement, leading the planting of over 50 million trees across Africa, and became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Patricia Bath
Ophthalmology, USA
Invented a laser device for cataract surgery that restored sight to people blind for decades, becoming the first Black woman to patent a medical device.
Adriana Ocampo
Planetary Geology, Colombia
Helped confirm the asteroid impact linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs and went on to lead NASA missions exploring other planets.
Segenet Kelemu
Plant Pathology, Ethiopia
Turned down opportunities abroad to return to Africa and fight crop diseases threatening the food supply of millions of small farmers.
Maryam Mirzakhani
Mathematics, Iran
Her work on the geometry of curved surfaces was so groundbreaking that she became the first woman ever to win the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honour.
Wanda Díaz-Merced
Astronomy, Puerto Rico
After losing her sight, she helped pioneer 'sonification,' turning astronomical data into sound so she could continue her research.
Wang Zhenyi
Astronomy & Mathematics, China
Using only a mirror, a table, and a hanging lamp at home, she correctly explained how lunar eclipses work centuries before modern telescopes confirmed it.
Bertha Lutz
Zoology, Brazil
Researched amphibians at Brazil's National Museum and became one of the few women to help draft the founding charter of the United Nations.
Dorothy Vaughan
Mathematics & Computing, USA
Became NASA's first Black supervisor, then taught herself and her team FORTRAN so they wouldn't be replaced by the new electronic computers, turning herself into one of NASA's first programmers.
Asima Chatterjee
Organic Chemistry, India
Developed some of India's first anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs and became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Science degree from an Indian university.
Mary Jackson
Aerospace Engineering, USA
Had to petition a Virginia court for permission to take whites-only night classes just to qualify, then became NASA's first Black female engineer.
Margaret Hamilton
Software Engineering, USA
Led the team that wrote the onboard flight software for the Apollo moon missions and is credited with coining the term "software engineering" at a time when few considered code-writing a real engineering discipline.
Maria Teresa Ruiz
Astronomy, Chile
Discovered one of the first confirmed brown dwarfs, a "failed star," and became the first woman to win Chile's National Prize for Exact Sciences.
Quarraisha Abdool Karim
Epidemiology, South Africa
Led the landmark trial proving a vaginal gel could cut women's HIV infection risk in half, creating one of the first HIV prevention tools designed specifically around women's needs.
Catherine Ngila
Analytical Chemistry, Kenya
Developed low-cost methods to detect water pollution and became the first woman ever elected president of the African Academy of Sciences.
Philippa Ngaju Makobore
Biomedical Engineering, Uganda
Invented affordable medical devices, including a low-cost infant warmer, for hospitals that couldn't afford imported equipment.
Tatiana Sampaio
Neuroscience/Biology, Brazil
Developed an experimental spinal-injury treatment that helped a paralyzed patient regain the ability to walk in an early clinical trial. The research is still being studied and verified by the wider scientific community, but it's already reshaping the conversation around spinal cord recovery.