Katie Hafner is host and co-executive producer of Lost Women of Science. She was a longtime reporter for the New York Times,, where she remains a frequent contributor. Hafner is uniquely positioned to tell these stories. Not only does she bring a skilled hand to complex narratives, but she has been writing about women in STEM for more than 30 years. She is also host and executive producer of Our Mothers Ourselves, an interview podcast, and the author of six nonfiction books. Her first novel, The Boys, was published by Spiegel & Grau in July. Follow Hafner on Twitter @katiehafner
Margarethe Hilferding, Sigmund Freud and the Conspiracy of Silence
Margarethe Hilferding was the first woman admitted to Sigmund Freud’s Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, but her radical work on maternal instinct was dismissed and ignored
Katalin Karikó’s Nobel Prize–Winning Work on mRNA Was Long Ignored—And Led to COVID Vaccines
Despite decades of doubt and dismissal, biochemist Katalin Karikó never gave up on the research that gave us mRNA COVID vaccines in record time
To Develop Tamoxifen, Dora Richardson Took Her Research Underground
When chemist Dora Richardson’s employer decided to terminate the breast cancer research on the drug Tamoxifen in the early 1970s, she and her colleagues continued the work in secret.
The Forgotten Developer of Tamoxifen, a Lifesaving Breast Cancer Therapy
Her name was on the patent for tamoxifen, but Dora Richardson’s story was lost until now
Wonder Drug Explores Thalidomide’s Secret History and Harms in the U.S.
In her book Wonder Drug, Jennifer Vanderbes explores the history of thalidomide’s secret history—and harms—in the U.S.
Sixty Years Later, and Thalidomide Is Still With Us
Decades after FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey stopped thalidomide from going on the market in the U.S., the legacy of the drug persists
Where Did All the Thalidomide Pills Distributed in the U.S. Go?
FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey saved American lives by refusing to approve thalidomide. But millions of pills had been sent to doctors in the U.S. for so-called clinical trials
Medical Sleuthing Identified the Dangers of Thalidomide
FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham wanted data that would show that thalidomide was safe to use during pregnancy. It wasn’t
Was Thalidomide Safe? Frances Oldham Kelsey Was Not Convinced
In the U.S. in the early 1960s the distributor of a thalidomide drug was impatient to get it on the market. But FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey wanted more information to prove its safety
The Devil in the Details, Chapter One: The Doctor Who Said No to Thalidomide
Starting with her rejection of an FDA application for thalidomide in 1960, physician and pharmacist Frances Oldham Kelsey took a stand against the now infamous drug
In Early Science Journalism, These Women Were Writing for Their Lives
Starting in the 1920s female writers pioneered the field of science writing for the mass market, making it their mission to help ordinary people understand everything from astronomy to venereal disease
This Researcher Helped Create a Machine to Pursue the ‘Quest for Everything’
Helen Edwards was a particle physicist who led the design and construction of the Tevatron, a machine built to probe deeper into the atom than anyone had gone before.
This Researcher Is on a Crusade to Correct Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalance
Physicist Jess Wade explains the importance of recognizing female scientists on Wikipedia. She’s created more than 2,000 Wikipedia articles to do just that
Elizabeth Bates and the Search for the Roots of Human Language
In the 1970s a young psychologist challenged a popular theory of how we acquire language, launching a fierce debate that continues to this day
The Theoretical Physicist Who Worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
Melba Phillips co-authored a paper with J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1935 that proved important in the development of nuclear physics. Later she became an outspoken critic of nuclear weapons
The Victorian Woman Who Chased Eclipses
Annie Maunder was an astronomer who expanded our understanding of the sun at the turn of the 20th century. Her passion was photographing eclipses.
The Forgotten Sisters Who Transformed Early American Science
The Morris sisters made significant contributions to botany and entomology, but their stories were erased from the history of early American science, both accidentally and by design.
The Cognitive Neuroscientist Who Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Language
Ursula Bellugi was fixated on how we learn language. Her groundbreaking research on sign language demonstrated the connection between language skills and biology
The Amazing Aerial Adventures of Lilian Bland, the ‘Flying Feminist’
In 1910 an Anglo-Irish woman named Lilian Bland built a plane with little to no encouragement from her family or aviation enthusiasts. Shortly after the plane took off, she quit flying and moved on to her next challenge
The Industrial Designer behind the N95 Mask
Sara Little Turnbull used materials science to invent and design products for the modern world
Forgotten Electrical Engineer's Work Paved the Way for Radar Technology
Sallie Pero Mead made major discoveries about how electromagnetic waves propagate that allowed objects to be detected at a distance
Adventures of a Bone Hunter
Annie Montague Alexander went on paleontology expeditions most women could only dream of in the early 1900s
The Devastating Logic of Christine Ladd-Franklin
This early feminist fought for the credit she deserved for her deductive reasoning system and her educational qualifications
This Biophysicist 'Sun Queen' Harnessed Solar Power
Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventorMária Telkes illuminated the field of solar energy. She invented a solar oven, a solar desalination kit and, in the late 1940s, designed one of the first solar-heated houses