Amid criticism of Medicine Nobel, recalling 3 women scientists who lost out on Nobel Prizes

Many said Lee equally deserved the honour, having served as the first author of multiple research papers with Ambros over the years. While the charge of a snub resulted in discussions about research protocol, it also brought back a frequently invoked accusation against the Nobel — of sexism.

Since the inception of the Nobel Prize in 1901, 64 women have been awarded, with only Marie Curie being a two-time winner. She bagged the 1903 award in Physics, following her husband Pierre’s insistence that she be recognised alongside him, and in 1911 for Chemistry. In medicine, only 13 women have won the prize to date.

Here is a look at three major instances, where prolific women scientists were denied the Nobel Prize, with their contributions recognised only years later.

1. 01

   Rosalind Franklin

   Today considered one of the most egregious Nobel Prize snubs ever, British chemist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) is regarded as a pioneer who discovered the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule.

   The reason she was denied the recognition? The Nobel does not posthumously recognise the contributions made by a researcher. Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958 in London, four years before James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the prize “for their discovery of the molecular structure of DNA, which helped solve one of the most important of all biological riddles,” according to the Nobel website.

   Franklin obtained her doctorate from Newnham College, Cambridge University in 1945 and researched extensively on coal and graphite. In 1951, she moved to King’s College London and pivoted to DNA research. She then met Wilkins, with whom she often clashed.

   It was here that she identified two forms of DNA, proving that the molecule could exist in different structural states depending on humidity levels. In 1952, Franklin and her PhD student Raymond Gosling captured the X-ray diffraction image of DNA, which revealed the double-helical structure.

   This image, leaked by Wilkins to Watson and Crick over at Cambridge, along with her 1951 lecture on forms of the DNA molecule, would be the crucial basis for the Nobel-winning discovery.

   In the following years, revelations about the nature of these discoveries have only vindicated Franklin’s claim to a Nobel. She persevered at King’s College despite little support for women in sciences. Crick once admitted, “I'm afraid we always used to adopt—let's say, a patronizing attitude towards her.”

2. 02

   Lise Meitner

   The Nobel prospects of physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968) were affected both by sexist attitudes and stereotypes about her Jewish heritage. The Austrian-Swedish scientist, known as the ‘Mother of the Atom Bomb’, was the first woman physics professor in Germany. Among her notable contributions is conceptualising nuclear fission, and the discovery of the radioactive element Protactinium.

   However, with the rise of Nazism in the early 20th century, Meitner was forced to flee to Sweden and had her name omitted from scientific papers in Nazi Germany under fear of persecution. This meant that the credit for discovering nuclear fission went entirely to Otto Hahn, who won the Chemistry Nobel in 1944 “for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei”.

   According to the Nobel Prize archive, Meitner was nominated 49 times for the Physics and Chemistry Nobel. Writing in Physics Today in 1997, authors Elisabeth Crawford, Ruth Lewin Sime and Mark Walker described Meitner’s exclusion from the Chemistry award “as a mixture of disciplinary bias, political obtuseness, ignorance, and haste”.

3. 03

   Jocelyn Bell Burnell

   Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell (born in 1943) was a 24-year-old postgraduate student when she discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. Radio pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars with strong magnetic fields that emit beams of radio waves.

   According to a report in The Washington Post, Burnell did all the grunt work in the run-up to the discovery. She built the telescope, laboured in harsh English weather, operated the instruments and analysed the data herself.

   However, the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics went to Sir Martin Ryle and Burnell’s advisor Antony Hewish, “for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars”.

   Downplaying the snub in 1977, Burnell said, “I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them”.

   She has since reflected on the sexism she faced as the only woman studying Physics at the University of Glasgow and the nature of media attention she received then – with questions about how many boyfriends she had, and if she could undo a shirt button or two while posing for photos.

   Burnell later won the 2018 £2.3m Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which awards the largest amount in science. She has used the prize money to make physics research accessible to disadvantaged groups, including women, ethnic minorities and refugees.