A Look At Women Who Have Won Nobel Prizes

Only 38 women have received Nobel Prizes since they were first handed out in 1901.

The latest _ Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider _ shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Jack W. Szostak for their work in solving the mystery of how chromosomes protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.

The first woman laureate was Marie Curie, who won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry. Other women who have won Nobel Prizes include literature winners Toni Morrison and Doris Lessing and peace prize laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, a democracy activist in Myanmar, and Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi. No woman has ever won the economics prize since it was first given out in 1969.

The 10 women who have won the medicine prize are:

_ Gerty Cori, 1947

_ Rosalyn Yalow, 1977

_ Barbara McClintock, 1983

_ Rita Levi-Montalcini, 1986

_ Gertrude B. Elion, 1988

_ Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard, 1995

_ Linda B. Buck, 2004

_ Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, 2008

_ Carol W. Greider, 2009

_ Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 2009

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Source: Nobel Foundation.