This month, the Minnesota Academy of Science is celebrating women’s history month! First, check out profiles of current Minnesota STEM professionals who are women. Then, peruse great photos we found in the archives at the Minnesota Digital Library of scientists who are women in action through the years.

Profiles of Current Minnesota STEM Professionals

Scientist Pajau Vangay used to make 'pretty code.' Now, she studies guts.
The World, June 21, 2018

“Pajau Vangay strides with purpose through a University of Minnesota science laboratory wearing a white lab coat and purple, synthetic gloves. She has a big experiment planned for tomorrow and is injecting Kool-Aid-colored chemicals into clear tubes. Vangay needs to be precise and also organized. If she forgets something or makes an incorrect measurement, it could throw off the whole experiment.

Tomorrow, she will dissect a batch of sterile mice whose tissues will be plunged into liquid nitrogen and examined for gut inflammation. Vangay, a doctoral student in bioinformatics and computational biology at the University of Minnesota, is part of an emerging cadre of scientists who study the microbiome — a constellation of microbes, fungi and bacteria that live in and on our bodies, including our intestines.”

Rachel Hardeman: Pulling Back the Curtain on Race and Health Care
The New York Times, April 25, 2022

“In February 2021, Dr. Hardeman, who is now a reproductive health equity researcher and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, founded the Center for Anti-Racism Research for Health Equity, which seeks health care solutions to the effects of policies and attitudes that work against people of color. Dr. Hardeman is the first to acknowledge that balancing her academic work and the center can be a challenge. “I feel like I’m building a plane while also flying the plane,” she said. “The work can’t stop while I build the infrastructure for the center.”

While the subjects and data-driven results of her research — survival rates of Black infants who are cared for by Black doctors versus white doctors after difficult deliveries, for example — sometimes garner controversy, Dr. Hardeman believes they are necessary for understanding the Black experience in the United States.”

Photos of Women in STEM from the Minnesota Digital Library

1903: Science class excursion at Winona Normal School, Winona, Minnesota
John M. Holzinger and his science class on an excursion on the south side of Lake Winona. Winona State University, Darrell W. Krueger Library.

Image: collection.mndigital.org/catalog/winona:463

circa 1905: Duluth Normal School science classroom with women students, Duluth, Minnesota
Women students work at laboratory stations in a science classroom at the Duluth Normal School. University of Minnesota Duluth Kathryn A. Martin Library, University Archives.

Image: collection.mndigital.org/catalog/umd:72

circa 1920: Madelia High School chemical laboratory, Madelia, Minnesota
Interior view of the 1920-era Junior Chemistry Class consisting of all girls. Watonwan County Historical Center.

Image: collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p15160coll2:60

circa 1970: Female student looking at test tube in lab, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota
Female student in lab coat looking at test tube during lab at Snelling Campus. Her lab notebook is open amidst a variety of other scientific equipment. Archives of Bethel University and Converge Worldwide.

Image: collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p15160coll13:83

1980: Nursing student in the laboratory, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota
The History Center, Archives of Bethel University and Converge Worldwide.

Image: collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p15160coll13:76

circa 1980: Science Specialist and students of Maxfield Elementary School, St. Paul, Minnesota
Science Specialist Judy Klatt with students in courtyard of Maxfield Elementary School, St Paul. Students are examining a Spirea japonica Little Princess shrub. Minnesota State Horticultural Society.