It’s become more important than ever to make sure the world knows how many incredible women are making groundbreaking contributions across the globe in just about every field imaginable. One area where women have really come to the forefront in recent years: science. If the achievements and advances made by these inspiring Chicago-area women weren’t on your radar, they should be. To get you up to date, here’s everything you need to know about our picks for this year’s top 10 women in science in Chicago.
Suzanne Bell
Bell is a scientist and a psychologist who is currently helping NASA build teams for a mission to Mars. She is also an associate professor in DePaul University’s College of Science and Health. Bell is working on analyzing psychological factors like personality, demographics, values and backgrounds to predict and ensure the success of a team in space.
Eileen Dolan
A professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, Dolan initiated the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience (CURE) program and the researcHStart, an eight-week cancer-focused research and career development program for high-achieving Chicago and Champaign-Urbana high school students. Dolan is passionate about her work to improve patient care through research by combining work in the laboratory with patient needs.
Dima Elissa
Elissa is the CEO and founder of VisMed-3D, a company that designs and prints 3D body parts. She is also a president for Women in Bio Chicago and a Polsky Exchange mentor. Elissa is devoted to leveling the playing field for girls and women in STEM by making changes to K-12 education and works with the STEM Steering Committee for the Apareció Foundation, an organization that focuses on empowering and educating young women in underserved communities.
Kelly Fahrbach
Dr. Fahrbach is a medical writer at StemScientific (part of Ashfield Healthcare Communications). She has worked at the Hope Lab at Northwestern University and has extensively researched virology, including authoring three first-person articles and co-authored a publication in peer-reviewed journals on HIV/AIDS.
Wendy L. Freedman
A professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, Freedman is an astronomer best known for her measurement of the Hubble Constant — the rate at which the universe is expanding. She is the winner of the 2016 Adler Planetarium Women in Space Science award and co-led an international team of 30 astronomers on the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project.
Guylaine Haché
A technical advisor at Rakoczy Molino Mazzochi Siwik LLP (a litigation and IP law firm), Haché has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and has worked on the HIV genome. Her outstanding work as a graduate student earned her the Beatrice Z. Milne and Theodore Brandenburg Award. She is also currently on track to graduate from Chicago-Kent College of Law this December.
Kawtar Hafidi
The 2013 winner of Argonne’s National Women in Science and Technology Diversity Award, Hafidi is a physicist who has worked tirelessly to promote hiring women of color in the STEM field. She initiated Argonne Laboratory’s Strategic Hiring, Advancement and Retention Program (SHARP), which develops approaches for the “representation, development and advancement” of STEM careers at Argonne.
Andrea Ingram
The vice president of education and guest services at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Ingram is responsible for the Center for Advancement of Science Education (CASE) at the museum. CASE not only helps science teachers but also leads community-based initiatives that help more than 10,000 children throughout Chicago.
Dorothy Kozlowski
The president of the Chicago Society for Neuroscience, Kozlowski is a neuroscientist who studies traumatic brain injury and neural plasticity and works with students at DePaul University. A native Chicagoan, she works with the Concussion Legacy Foundation and provides concussion education programs to middle and high school students in the Chicago area.
Jelena Radulovic
Radulovic is a professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine as well as the associate editor for The Journal of Neuroscience and senior editor for journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. The Radulovic Laboratory studies neurobiological pathways causing anxiety and depression-like behaviors. She is also fluent in Serbian, German, English, Italian and French.
