September 9, 1928 – Birth of Vera Kistiakowsky, an expert in nuclear chemistry and physics, particle physics, and astrophysics

An expert in experimental particle physics and observational astrophysics, she has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, completed a postdoctoral fellowship working in experimental nuclear physics with Luis Walter Álvarez, and worked as a research associate in the physics department helping Chien-Shiung Wu ( American physicist expert in radioactivity).

Between 1963 and 1971, she worked as a professor and researcher in the physics department and in the Laboratory of Nuclear Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), thus becoming the first woman to do so.

Around that time, she also began advocating for the advancement of women in science and becoming a great activist for this cause.

In 1969, she founded the Boston Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), forerunner of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), and served as chair or member of numerous MIT committees and groups related to MIT women.

In 1971, she founded the American Physical Society (APS) Committee on the Status of Women in Physics by obtaining a $10,000 grant from the Sloan Foundation to produce a report on the conditions of employment for women. She also created a list of female physicists, "to counter claims that there were no qualified people to hire." In 1972, this detailed report convinced the APS to permanently establish the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics which is still active today.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Vera Kistiakowsky