The recent passing of Margaret Hamilton merited a New York Times headline that included “the woman whose software guided the Apollo missions.” Even though I have been researching, writing, and speaking about historical and contemporary women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for almost forty years, Margaret Hamilton was a hidden figure to me. I was not aware of her significant accomplishments.

Margot Lee Shetterly’s book Hidden Figures, which was made into a movie, brought the accomplishments of four African American STEM women to light. Each of those women played a key role in the U.S. space program, like Margaret Hamilton. How many other hidden figures are out there? Many. I am trying my best to decrease the knowledge gap by putting information about the technical accomplishments of STEM women into the public arena.

Through various volumes in the Springer Women in Engineering and Science series, women’s technical accomplishments are written about and honored. Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the woman who I consider my catalyst for all the work I have done to nominate women for technical awards, to speak about them, and to write them into history, is profiled in multiple books in the series. What did Admiral Hopper do? Her development of the computer compiler made smartphones and so much of today’s computer technology possible. For this accomplishment, she received the 1991 National Medal of Technology from President George H.W. Bush at the White House Rose Garden. Her accomplishments are documented at length in Women in Computational Intelligence (Alice E. Smith, Editor), Women Engineering Legends 1952-1976: Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award Recipients (Craig, et.al., Editors), and Women Laureates 1970-2007: Winners of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation (Tietjen, et.al., Authors).

Alice Stoll, for whom two different sets of Stoll Curves are named, is also in the Women Engineering Legends 1952-1976 volume. Her first Stoll Curve documents the relationship between g forces and the human ability to retain consciousness. Stoll was the first woman to ride the centrifuge. Military pilots and the entire U.S. space program continue to benefit from her efforts. The second Stoll Curve is used in the fire protection industry and led to the development of flame-resistant fabrics that save the lives of race car drivers, fighter pilots, and firefighters, among others.

So many women are no longer hidden figures to me because of their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and our volume about them – Women in the National Women’s Hall of Fame: The First 50 Years (Busch-Vishniac, et.al., Authors). Although Stoll is not in this volume as she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2024 (the Hall’s 51^st year), other hidden figures are. Margaret Knight invented the machine that makes square bottom paper bags – bags we use today at the grocery store. Bacteriological chemist Mary Engle Pennington’s work with milk, eggs, poultry, and fish as well as refrigerated railroad cars led to safe handling of perishable foods. Physicist Katharine Blodgett’s non-reflective glass is the glass on your television screen and smartphone. Microbiologist Elizabeth Lee Hazen and chemist Rachel Fuller Brown invented the first antifungal antibiotic Nystatin, considered the most important biomedical breakthrough since the discovery of penicillin.

And there are many more. Chemist Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar® which has saved the lives of thousands of police officers and military personnel and is used in more than 200 products. Dr. Patricia Bath invented the laserphaco, a tool used to remove cataracts with minimal impact on surrounding tissue. Chemist Margaret Wu invented a new class of synthetic lubricants used in everything from cars to wind turbines. Electrical engineer Kristina Johnson made it possible for us to make and watch 3D movies and have digital mammograms. Chemist Sumita Mitra invented the nanocomposite dental filler that has now been used to repair more than one billion teeth. Computer scientist Chieko Asakawa invented an internet browser for visually impaired users. Marian Croak invented voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) which permits voice, text, and video digital signals to travel over the internet. The list goes on and on.

How can the information about hidden figures in STEM become more available to the public in addition to these books in the Springer Women in Engineering and Science series? Through a children’s picture book. Published in 2026, The ABC’s of Women Inventors, Scientists, and Engineers (Kolvick, et.al.) makes STEM women and their technical accomplishments accessible to all ages and all people.

In 2017, General Electric featured solid-state physicist “Queen of Carbon Science” Millie Dresselhaus (Pioneering Women of Solid-State Physics: Breaking Boundaries – Tietjen and Ozturk; Busch-Vishniac, et.al.) in a television advertisement that wondered “What if we treated female scientists like they were celebrities?”

If women in STEM were treated like celebrities, they wouldn’t be hidden figures any longer. That is what I am working to do – make these women in STEM hidden figures no more.