In Honor of International Women’s Day: 5 Distinguished Female Professors

March 8th is International Women’s Day — a global celebration of the achievements of women around the world and an appeal to continue working toward a life of gender equality for all. To celebrate the strides women have made in the higher education sphere and beyond, we’re highlighting 5 renowned female professors at top US universities, as well as their incredible accomplishments!

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to recognize the endless contributions women have made to our society despite the ongoing challenges they face. At Crimson, our team is made stronger and more innovative every day thanks to many talented women across the globe who work to accelerate our mission of eliminating the barriers of geography and legacy from the college admissions process.

Women have made an enormous impact on the higher education landscape, and they continue to do so today. From founding the world’s oldest university in 859 AD to taking home four Nobel Prizes in 2020 while serving as professors at the likes of Yale, UCLA and UC Berkeley — women are making their mark at the colleges and universities that are cultivating the next generation of world leaders.

Especially in the US (which has more colleges and universities than almost any other country in the world), female professors have significantly impacted every field of study from STEM and social sciences to humanities and the Fine Arts. In honor of International Women’s Day, we would like to highlight some of these distinguished women and their boundless contributions to the world of higher education!

Sarah Bergbreiter - Carnegie Mellon University

Sarah Bergbreiter is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and formerly the Director of the Maryland Robotics Center, Micro Robotics Lab and the Robot Realization Lab at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on tiny robot dynamics to create microscopic mechanisms with use cases spanning government intelligence, construction, medicine and more! Professor Bergbreiter earned her BSE degree at Princeton and Master’s and PhD degrees at UC Berkeley, and has received a slew of awards including the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2008), the NSF CAREER Award (2011), and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists (2013) for her research on engineering robotic systems down to sub-millimeter size scales.

Deirdre McCloskey - University of Illinois at Chicago

Deirdre McCloskey is both a Distinguished Professor Emerita of History, Economics, English, and Communication and an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and the Classics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her main interests include the origins of the modern world, the misuse of statistical significance in economics, and the study of capitalism. She has written 20 books and some 400 academic and popular articles on economic history, rhetoric, philosophy, statistical theory, economic theory, feminism, queer studies, liberalism, ethics, and law. Professor McCloskey earned her Bachelor’s degree and PhD at Harvard, has honorary doctorates degrees from six universities, and is currently writing a six-volume tome on the Age of the Bourgeoisie. Deirdre, born Donald, transitioned from male to female in 1995.

Lisa Randall - Harvard University

Lisa Randall is an expert on particle physics and cosmology and is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and previously taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. She is best known for co-creating the Randall-Sundrum model of the universe, which is a class of string theory inspired models in combined cosmology and particle physics. She was on the 2007 TIME 100 list and was the first female theoretical physicist to gain tenure at Harvard, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree and PhD. She also wrote two books featured on the New York Times' list of 100 notable books: "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions" and "Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World".

Barbara Harbach - University of Missouri, St. Louis

An acclaimed composer and musician, Barbara Harbach is the Director of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, as well as a Curators' Distinguished Professor of Music. She founded the Women in the Arts, a University of Missouri, St. Louis initiative celebrating women creators in partnership with the institutions and arts organizations in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 2016, Professor Harbach was chosen as one of the 30 Most Innovative Women Professors Alive Today. She holds degrees from Penn State, Yale, the Musikhochschule-Frankfurt, and the Eastman School of Music.

Dava Newman - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dava Newman is the Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as the Director of the MIT Media Lab beginning in July 2021. Newman has served as principal investigator on four space missions and has developed four advanced suit concepts for intravehicular and extravehicular activity in space. She also created the BioSuit, a 2007 TIME Best Invention designed for future moon and Mars exploration! Professor Newman was nominated by President Obama to serve as deputy administrator of NASA from 2015 to 2017 (the first female engineer to hold the position) and contributed to the Human Journey to Mars plan. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Notre Dame and two Master’s degrees as well as her PhD at MIT.

This list only grazes the surface of a growing pool of truly remarkable female professors teaching and researching at top universities in the US and beyond. Do you aspire to study under award-winning, globally renowned professors like these? With Crimson’s help, gaining admission to the world-leading universities they call home is well within reach. To learn more about how we can help you achieve your university dreams, click the link below to schedule a free consultation with an Academic Advisor. Happy International Women’s Day!