>>Katrina: One of my favorite scientists is astronomer Michelle Thaller because I really admire a lot of the communication work she does. But probably the most inspiring female scientist growing up was the fictional character Ms. Frizzle. Because, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy" is just the best mantra ever. >>Colleen: Lise Meitner is by far my favorite physicist of any gender. Because she unlocked the mysteries of the atom, which helps all of humanity. And yes, it was used for nuclear fission and helping us win World War II, but it's now being used for peaceful purposes. >>Neil: I have the greatest admiration for Vera Rubin, who found that galaxies are rotating too fast for the amount of mass that we see, which is evidence for the existence of dark matter. >>Joy: Quirky, encouraging, incredibly inspiring, and slightly crazy. This is Miss Mower, my high school teacher. She's my favorite woman in science. Not only does she push my curiosity about the world, but she taught me to believe that everything is impossible until someone does it. >>Piers: Sofia Kovalyevskaya. She was a brilliant Russian mathematician, she was the first woman in Europe to get a PhD in mathematics, and she developed some really astounding theories pretty much all by herself. She met with a whole lot of interesting people in Europe and lived a very exciting and interesting life, so look her up. >>Claire: One female scientist who really inspires me is Caroline Herscel. She was born back in 1750 when it was really tough for a female to get a good education at all, and she also had major childhood diseases that disfigured her life, and yet despite that, she became a famous astronomer, made major discoveries, and got major awards. And she's a real inspiration. >>Noah: I always found Carle Pieters to be very inspiring because she started her career at a time when women were not so common in planetary science. And she's always carried herself with an amazing amount of honor, with an amazing amount of dignity, and treated people, no matter who they are or what they believed in, with an amazing amount of respect. And for that Carle Pieters is one of the most amazing female scientists that I've ever had the privilege of knowing. >>Kasha: My favorite woman in science is Ellen Swallow Richards. She's an industrial and environmental chemist, and she laid the foundation for what is known today as the home economics movement. She focused a lot on proper clothing, pure food, nutrition, sanitation, and more efficient practice so females could spend more time on things other than cooking and cleaning inside the household. >>Jim: To me there are really two science leader women who have inspired me and I think who have inspired our agency. The first is Sally Ride, our first female astronaut, and a scientist and astrophysicist, who not only lead us on the Shuttle flights, but also in recapturing the leadership of NASA in the post-Challenger days. Secondly, my colleague, fellow scientist Lori Glaze, a brilliant vulcanologist. She inspires leadership as a leading kind of person, someone who not only does the science but is great working with the people to give us the hope and inspiration to do those great new missions that we strive to do. >>Lola: Dr. Jane Goodall. She studied chimp behavior over many years in Tanzania, and her perseverance and her courage to live by herself in the middle of nowhere was always inspiring to me. >>Pat: Women in science who inspired me? I can't remember all the names. There's Judy Resnik, Sally Ride, Claire Parkinson, Heidi Hammel, Nicky Fox, Michelle Thaller, Holly Gilbert, Kim Weaver, and I apologize for those names I've left out. Joanne Simpson, an inspiring scientist, because she discovered things that changed how we think about tropical meteorology and even after that she was always willing to help other people get started in their careers. >>Dalia: My most inspiring female scientist is actually my mom. She's a dentist and an entrepreneur. She hasn't won a Nobel prize, but most importantly she's shown me and everybody around me the ability to balance family and have a successful career. And that has taken me all the way through and she is my role model. [no sound]