Since 1973, August 26 has been observed as Women’s Equality Day in the US. The day was established to commemorate the passing of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.  The date is also an occasion to shine a spotlight on women’s continuous efforts at r gender equality.

Did you know that Northeastern started as an institution for men’s education and was called the Evening Institute for Younger Men till 1916?

Powerful women such as Margaret Clapp and Mary Ellen Chas received their honorary doctorates from Northeastern, resulting in the initiation of the women’s studies program in 1980. This was followed by the creation of a program for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Since then, our female Huskies have made us proud across multiple domains, including underrepresented fields like STEM. Today, we’re celebrating some of our pioneering Northeastern women in STEM and their incredible achievements:

Anastasia Mavridis and Theodora Christopher

SaluTemp, an innovative venture started by these two Huskies, aims to solve one of the biggest problems faced by pharmaceuticals – cold storage! Anastasia and Theodora are both working towards building a temperature sensitive device which can alert patients about how to store their medications safely. Their project earned well-deserved recognition from the Women Who Empower initiative at Northeastern and received an innovator award.

Molly White

Molly obtained her Bachelor’s degree in computer science and has since worked as a tech lead with a Cambridge based software company. Outside of work, she is a veteran Wikipedia editor and runs her own blog called Web3 is Going Just Great. Her honest criticism of crypto marketing has gained her an audience and has even led to a feature in The Washington Post. We believe it is important to have vocal technologists like Molly who present a fair judgement of technically complex but widely popular topics like Web 3 and crypto.

Noreen Rizvi

Noreen co-founded The Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE) association at Northeastern. The association consists of graduate students and post doctorates, and aims to assist the professional and personal advancement of women in science and engineering. Noreen graduated with a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern and has since been a part of various life science companies and ventures. Currently she is the head of R&D strategy and operations at Faze Medicines, a Cambridge based Biotech firm. According to her collaboration with MassBio, Noreen continues to share her values from GWISE and is an ardent believer in the importance of mentorship in the Biotechnology industry.

These are just a few of the many women Huskies in STEM who are making strides in the industry. Congratulations to everyone working towards leaving a positive global impact on society and ensuring gender equality and representation. We couldn’t be prouder!