Physiology or Medicine

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi dedicated her career as a scientist and as an activist to halting the spread of AIDS. Her discovery of HIV led to blood tests that could detect the infection, and ultimately to anti retroviral medications that have turned AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. For the people around the world who don’t have access to AIDS drugs, Barré-Sinoussi has been a tireless advocate.

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Neuroscientist May-Britt Moser persisted in a decades-long quest to understand how the brain worked at a cellular level. She persevered through a series of challenges – from a reluctant PhD advisor to the birth of two daughters – with a stubborn sense of purpose. Together with her then-husband, Edvard, she learned how the brain perceives where the body is positioned and discovered the cellular basis of cognitive function.

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Rosalyn Yalow became a physicist at a time when being a woman was a serious impediment to success. But succeed she did. With her research partner Solomon Berson, she made a transformative contribution to medical research: radioimmunoassay, a method for measuring concentrations of substances in the blood.

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