From decoding what built life on Earth to exploring the farthest reaches of the universe, famous women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible.
Despite facing systemic barriers, women pioneers in technology have made transformational contributions in their fields. This article celebrates the most influential women in STEM—present and past—whose work and motivating speeches continue to shape our world.
Why Female Representation in STEM Matters
Society benefits from more inclusive research, diverse problem-solving and breakthrough innovations when women thrive in STEM fields. Yet, despite progress, women remain underrepresented, particularly in leadership roles. Encouraging visibility and support for women in STEM isn’t just a matter of equality—it’s key to progress.
Modern Women in STEM Making An Impact Today
Famous women in STEM today are leading advancements in artificial intelligence, health science, space exploration and sustainability. Women pioneers in technology are making scientific strides and advocating for equity, representation and ethical innovation.
1.Dr. Asha De Vos
Dr. Asha de Vos is a Sri Lankan marine biologist and conservationist known for her pioneering work on blue whales and deep-sea ecosystems. As one of the most famous female scientists today, she founded Oceanswell, Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organisation. An alumna of the University of St. Andrews, Oxford and Western Australia, she has been featured by the BBC, TED and National Geographic. Recognised globally for her advocacy in marine science, diversity and inclusion, she has received numerous honours and awards. In 2024, she was appointed to the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board, continuing her global impact on ocean conservation and equity.
2.Dr. Merrit Moore
Dr Merritt Moore is a quantum physicist, professional ballet dancer and an influential woman in STEM who bridges science and art. With a physics degree from Harvard and a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics from Oxford, she has also performed with top ballet companies. During the pandemic, she gained global acclaim by programming robots to dance with her, showcasing her work at the World Economic Forum and Forbes Women’s Summit. Featured in TIME, Vogue and the BBC, Dr Moore teaches creative robotics at NYU Abu Dhabi. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, she champions STEM, AI and creative innovation worldwide.
3.Marie Outtier
Marie is a pioneering AI entrepreneur, investor and keynote speaker who transitioned from eight years as an employee to co-founding Aiden.ai, an AI-driven recommender system startup. As CEO, she secured over $2 million in funding and led global expansion before the software was acquired by Twitter, where she later became a senior product leader. Passionate about diversity and ethical AI, Marie has invested in 25+ startups, over half led by female founders. She champions operational experience in venture capital and is widely recognised as one of the top women in STEM fields, inspiring women in tech and advocating for inclusive innovation.
4.Shivvy Jervis
Shivvy Jervis is an influential woman in STEM, a neuroscience researcher and a tech futurist, known for making emerging innovations accessible and human-centred. Named a Champion of Change and one of Britain’s Women of the Year, she has delivered over 600 talks globally, including for TED Talks and the World Economic Forum. With a background in journalism and neuroscience, Shivvy explores Generative AI, the Metaverse and behavioural psychology to drive engagement and ethical innovation. A Discovery Channel host and trusted media voice for the BBC and The Times, she champions tech-for-good and future skills, earning millions of views across platforms.
5.Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza
Dr Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a chemical biologist, National Geographic explorer and Amazon Research Internacional (ARI) founder. She blends ancestral knowledge of Peruvian-Andean and Amazonian heritage with modern science, developing antibiotics and green chemistry tools. Her research explores extreme ecosystems, from the Amazon to Yellowstone, uncovering microbes with powerful potential. As a conservationist and diversity advocate, she works with local communities to support sustainable economies. Rosa collaborates with NASA, Disney, HITN-TV and the Science Channel, promoting STEAM, recycling and environmental awareness. Featured in Forbes and National Geographic, she’s a sought-after woman in STEM, inspiring global audiences through science and storytelling.
6.Zara Rutherford
Zara Rutherford is a world-record-breaking pilot and renowned speaker, celebrated for her historic 2022 achievement as the youngest woman to fly solo worldwide in just 4 months and 26 days. Coming from a family of aviators, Zara champions women’s empowerment, especially in STEM and aviation, where gender gaps remain stark. Her talks inspire young women to be bold, ambitious and fearless in breaking barriers. As a sought-after speaker at global conferences and brand campaigns, she addresses topics such as Women in STEM, Equality and Peak Performance, motivating audiences worldwide to dream big and challenge conventional limits.
7.Dr. Nadia Nadim
Dr Nadia Nadim is a professional footballer, qualified doctor and UNESCO Ambassador for Girls’ and Women’s Education. Born in Afghanistan, she fled the Taliban and rebuilt her life in Denmark, where she discovered football. She became the first naturalised citizen to play for Denmark’s national team and has since played for top clubs like PSG, AC Milan and Racing Louisville. While playing professionally, she earned a medical degree and now trains as a reconstructive surgeon. A multilingual humanitarian and TV pundit, Nadia is also a fashion ambassador for brands like H&M and Dior, inspiring global audiences through resilience, sport and education.
8.Lucy Shaw
Lucy Shaw’s mission is to make energy cheap and abundant without harming people or the planet. A mechanical engineer by training, she has delivered energy and infrastructure projects worldwide for over a decade and now leads Gordon Management, an investment consultancy focused on energy projects across the UK and Africa.
Growing up in Borneo, she witnessed first-hand the toll of power cuts and deforestation. After working as an oil and gas engineer, she joined Boston Consulting Group in Australia, then moved through Latin America and Africa to advance rural development, partnering with the United Nations, the Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. She earned a Master’s from Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from Harvard Business School on a Fulbright scholarship, graduating in the top 5% of her class before joining Blackstone to invest in European infrastructure.
Today she writes Slow Burn, a column on the energy transition, co-hosts the Power Plays podcast and is writing Coal Blooded, a book on breaking the world’s coal dependence. Drawing on her cross-disciplinary experience and global network, she speaks on energy, climate, geopolitics, finance and empowering women in non-traditional fields.
9.Avye Couloute
Avye Couloute is a multi-award-winning young changemaker and social entrepreneur championing women in STEM. Through her initiative, Girls Into Coding, she empowers girls aged 10-14 with free workshops in coding, robotics, engineering and 3D printing. Recognised globally, she has reached over 3,000 girls in 16 countries. Avye also leads sustainability and climate change workshops and is a DesignSpark-RS influencer. Her accolades include the Royal Academy of Engineering Excellence Award and UK Young Engineer of the Year.
10.Dr. Gunhild Stordalen
Dr. Gunhild Stordalen is a globally recognised medical doctor, climate advocate and sustainability leader. As EAT’s Founder and Executive Chair, she champions a science-based, multi-stakeholder approach to transforming global food systems. With a PhD in pathology and decades of work at the intersection of health, climate and sustainability, she has led initiatives like the UN Food Systems Summit and advised organisations including the World Economic Forum. Honoured with awards such as WWF Sweden’s Environmental Hero and the UN Foundation’s Global Leadership Award, Dr. Stordalen continues to shape international policy and dialogue on sustainable food and planetary health.
11.Professor Dr. Larissa Suzuki
Prof Dr Larissa Suzuki is a multi-award-winning computer scientist, engineer and leading AI ethics advocate. As an influential woman in STEM, she is the youngest technical director at Google, serving as Data and AI Practice Lead and AI Principles Ethics Fellow. With a 19-year career spanning AI, smart cities, machine learning and neuroimaging, she has held senior roles at Oracle, Tfl and Founders4Schools. As a visiting scientist at NASA JPL and an honorary associate professor at UCL, Larissa has earned prestigious awards from MIT, Intel and the IET. She is a recognised thought leader driving innovation in AI, ethics, data science and diversity in engineering.
12.Tabitha Goldstaub
Tabitha Goldstaub MBE co-founded CogX, a festival and online platform. Alongside CogX, Tabitha is the chair of the UK government’s AI Council and a DCMS Digital Economy Council member and on the TechUK board. A serial entrepreneur, Tabitha was the co-founder of video distribution company Rightster (IPO 2011.) Tabitha is the author of How To Talk To Robots – A Girls’ Guide to a World Dominated by AI. She’s also an advisor to The Stack, TeensInAI, Raspberry Pi, Tortoise Media and The Alan Turing Institute.
13.Tilly Lockey
Tilly Lockey is one of the youngest and most inspiring women in STEM fields, known for championing the fusion of AI, technology and human empowerment. A UK-based artist and bionic arm ambassador, she co-developed the AI-powered Hero Arm with Open Bionics from the age of nine, helping transform the future of prosthetics. After losing both hands to meningococcal septicaemia as a baby, Tilly turned adversity into innovation, creating lightweight, muscle-responsive bionic limbs that prioritise individuality and function. Speaking at AI Everything Global 2025 with GITEX GLOBAL, she highlights AI’s role in personalised healthcare and prosthetic design, inspiring global audiences with her vision.
14.Cassie Kozyrkov
Cassie Kozyrkov, CEO of Kozyr and founder of Decision Intelligence, is a globally recognised AI leader and former Chief Decision Scientist at Google, where she trained over 20,000 employees and influenced 500+ projects. Known for making complex technology accessible, Cassie has advised NASA, Gucci, Meta and more on AI strategy. A sought-after STEM speaker, she has spoken in 40+ countries and on all seven continents, including at the UN and World Economic Forum. Featured on Forbes AI’s cover and in Harvard Business Review, she is also a LinkedIn Top Voice and the #1 AI writer on Medium, with 200+ published articles.
15.Anne Marie Imafidon MBE
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a remarkable prodigy and leading voice in technology and STEM. At age 11, she became the youngest girl to pass A-level Computing and by 20, she earned a Master’s Degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Oxford.
Recognised globally, she was named the most influential woman in tech in the UK (2020) by Computer Weekly and listed among Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech. Anne-Marie has served as President of the British Science Association (2022–2023), Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, Co-Chair of the Institute for the Future of Work and Chair of UD Music Foundation.
She appeared as the temporary Arithmetician on Channel 4’s Countdown for 60 episodes and authored She’s In CTRL (2022). Awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to young women and STEM, she has also received multiple honorary doctorates from leading UK universities and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford, reflecting her outstanding contributions to education, technology and innovation.
16.Helene Guillaume
Helene Guillaume founded Wild.AI, which was later acquired by Zepp Health (NYSE: ZEPP) in 2025. She built the company where AI, longevity, sports and femtech meet, taking it all the way from an idea to a successful exit. Before that, she worked as a quantitative analyst at a hedge fund and advised enterprises like Fannie Mae on AI.
Helene studied mathematics and financial risks and she’s been a competitive athlete her whole life, across swimming, triathlon, ultra trail, skiing and lately surfing. She loves talking about what it really takes to build a company from scratch and see it through to acquisition.
Her talks are refreshingly honest and practical. She walks audiences through the raw founder journey: building without perfect data, finding product-market fit, de-risking through enterprise pilots, hiring for speed and steering an acquisition with a major company. She also shows leaders how to build a personal brand that turns expertise into real opportunities and offers executives a no-nonsense roadmap for getting up to speed with AI, from quick wins to safe pilots and the metrics that actually matter.
17.Alexandra Forysth
Alexandra Forsyth hosts the podcast Take A Chance On You and speaks at The Podcast Show London.Alexandra Forsyth hosts the podcast Take A Chance On You and speaks at The Podcast Show London. Her work centres on experience-led podcasting, brand partnerships and putting people at the heart of measuring return on investment, whether live or digital.
As a creative and tech founder and a TEDx community presenter, Alexandra loves helping people step into braver, bigger versions of their lives through conversation and storytelling. She’s paying close attention to how fast things are shifting in 2026, especially around how businesses adopt new technology and rethink their growth strategies.
That’s exactly where she works with leaders and founders: on strategy, business development and the kind of clear, structured thinking that actually gets results. She has even built her own Human-Focused ROI framework to tackle 2026’s biggest challenge: getting the best out of people while everything goes through AI-driven digital transformation. She has also been appointed a British Podcast Awards Judge for 2026.
On top of her consultancy work, Alexandra’s Dream Big concept sparks honest conversations about overcoming adversity, breaking down barriers in the creative and tech worlds, embracing technology and turning big, ambitious ideas into real outcomes.
18.Dr. Kitty Yeung
Dr. Kitty Yeung is a distinguished name in the AI thought leaders list. She is a physicist, engineer and artist. As the founder of Wear It AI, she heralds the fusion of technology, fashion and sustainability. Previously, she led Microsoft’s fashion-tech incubation and served as Senior Director of AI at Browzwear. A Generative AI speaker and AI expert speaker, she applies generative AI, computer vision and robotics to revolutionise manufacturing and retail.
With a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard and experience at IBM, Intel and Microsoft, Dr. Yeung bridges science and creativity. Her high-tech fashion brand, Art by Physicist, has gained her the title of one of the top 100 women in fashion tech by Women of Wearables. She also simplifies quantum computing through comics and educational materials featured in Forbes. She is a sought-after speaker on AI ethics, inspiring innovation across various disciplines.
19.Professor Alice Roberts
Alice Roberts loves sharing knowledge and she has a real gift for making complex ideas click for any audience. Originally trained as a doctor, she left surgery to teach clinical anatomy at university and research biological anthropology.
Today she’s one of the UK’s best-loved broadcasters, with over 100 factual documentaries to her name and a reputation as an authority on human biology, history and archaeology. Recent shows include Ancient Egypt by Train, The Lost Scrolls of Vesuvius, Royal Autopsy and her ever-popular BBC series Digging for Britain.
Alice has headlined corporate launches, chaired debates and hosted awards ceremonies. She presented the Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures and, in 2020, won the Royal Society’s first David Attenborough Prize for Public Engagement.
She’s also an award-winning writer of 15 best-selling popular science books, plus her acclaimed debut children’s novel, Wolf Road. Whatever the occasion, Alice is guaranteed to educate, entertain and inspire audiences of every age and interest.
20.Alysaa Carson
Alyssa Carson, who goes by the call sign Blueberry, is an American student with one big dream: to train as an astronaut and one day fly to Mars.
It started at age 3, when the Nickelodeon show The Backyardigans sparked her imagination. She attended her first U.S. Space Camp in 2008, along with camps in Canada and Turkey. By 2013, NASA recognised her as the first person to visit all 14 of its U.S. visitor centres and at 12 she joined a NASA panel discussing future Mars missions.
She went on to study Astrobiology at Florida Institute of Technology and earned her applied astronautics certification at 17. Alyssa is also the youngest full member of The Explorers Club and she holds her rocket license, pilot license, skydiving and advanced scuba certifications and aquanaut status. In 2022, she became one of just five global ambassadors chosen to work with NATO.
STEM Careers: Progress, Barriers and Opportunities for Women
Although opportunities in STEM have grown, women still face obstacles such as gender bias, unequal pay and limited leadership roles. Mentorship programmes, scholarships and inclusive hiring practices are helping bridge the gap.
At Kruger Cowne, we’re proud to represent women who champion innovation and inclusion – brilliant minds who don’t just lead in science but inspire change on the world stage. As part of the Kruger Cowne Speaker Bureau, we work with pioneers in STEM who can uplift and energise audiences and take your events to the next level through keynote talks, panels and educational outreach.
How These Stories Inspire the Next Generation
Representation matters. Seeing influential women in STEM gives young people, especially girls, the confidence to pursue what once seemed unreachable. These stories ignite curiosity, dismantle stereotypes and reinforce that brilliance knows no gender.
By showcasing these role models, schools, companies and communities can help cultivate the next generation of scientists, engineers and thinkers.
Final Thoughts: Honouring the Past, Shaping the Future
From historical women in STEM to famous women in STEM today, including famous female scientists today, their achievements remind us that diversity drives innovation. As we honour their legacies, we must also invest in policies and platforms that support equity in STEM careers.
Whether you’re a teacher, event organiser, business leader or policy maker, amplifying women’s voices in STEM has never been more crucial – one inspiring speech at a time.
FAQs
Why is female representation in STEM important?
Having female representation in STEM comes down to better outcomes. When you’ve got women in the room, research tends to be more inclusive and problems get solved in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. So it’s not just a fairness thing. Having women leaders in STEM actually makes the work better for everyone.
Who are some famous women in STEM today?
There’s Dr. Asha de Vos, who studies blue whales off Sri Lanka. Dr. Merritt Moore, who’s a quantum physicist and a ballet dancer. Lucy Shaw works on energy and Cassie Kozyrkov is huge in AI. These influential women in science are doing wildly different things and making a mark for themselves.
Which women in STEM changed history?
There’s Ada Lovelace, basically the world’s first computer programmer, who saw what computers could do long before anyone else. Mary Somerville helped make science make sense to ordinary people. Hertha Ayrton picked up the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal for her work on electric arcs. Kathleen Lonsdale became one of the first two women elected to the Royal Society and Nobel winner Dorothy Hodgkin cracked the structures of key molecules using X-ray crystallography.
What challenges do women face in STEM careers?
Gender bias, meaning getting paid less for the same work and not enough women in top jobs. It’s getting better, though. Mentorship, scholarships and fairer hiring are slowly removing these obstacles.
Why are role models important for girls in STEM?
When a girl spots a woman doing something amazing in science or tech, suddenly it doesn’t feel so unreachable. These inspirational women in STEM make it feel possible for young girls.
Which STEM fields have the highest demand for women?
If you’re looking at where the buzz is, it’s AI, data science, health, space and anything sustainability-related. These areas are growing fast and could really use more women. And the influential women in science already leading the charge show there’s plenty of room to make a mark.
How can I book women in STEM speakers for events?
The easiest way is through a speaker bureau. Kruger Cowne, for instance, represents a bunch of these women leaders in STEM. Tell them whether you want a keynote, a panel or something more hands-on for students and organisations and they’ll match you with someone who fits your event and budget.
