List of fictional female scientists in SF

Characters by name

• Dr. Antonia Almiramez (Ann, Toni) in Dance of Knives by Donna McMahon
• Dr. Louise Banks in "Story of Your Life", by Ted Chiang
• Diane Bates, oceanographer, in the Ocean Girl TV series
• Diana Brackley, John Wyndham, Trouble With Lichen (discovers a substance that prolongs life)
• Emily Brand, in Lightsource by Bari Wood (1984) (a spy-fi in which a physicist develops a fusion reactor)
• Fred Burkle on Angel (physicist)
• Elizabeth Butler (archaeologist), Pat Murphy, The Falling Woman
• Dr. Susan Calvin in Asimov's Foundation series
• Samantha Carter in "Stargate SG-1" (is there anything she can't do?)
• Anne Clewiston, in The Clewiston Test (1976) by Kate Wilhelm
• Professor Zephyr Duquesne, cultural archaeologist in Natural History by Justina Robson
• Zoe Heriot in "Doctor Who" (mathematician)
• Martha Jaques (antagonist) in The Rose by Charles Harness (1953)
• Dewey Kerrigan (inventor) in The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages (2006; non-SFnal historical novel)
• Theodora Leslie (biologist) in The Rains of Eridan by H. M. Hoover (1977)
• Dr. Beatrice Liddle in "Chocky's Challenge" (astronomer)
• Dr. Mary Malone in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
• Dr. Allison Mann in Y: The Last Man - a geneticist
• Albertine Meyer in "Chocky's Children" and "Chocky's Challenge" (mathematician)
• Jeanie Miller in "Stargate Atlantis" (physicist)
• Dr. Anna Quibler in Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Dr. Dorcas Rae in Gaia's Toys by Rebecca Ore
• Renee in "Division by Zero", by Ted Chiang
• Romana in "Doctor Who" (Time Lady)
• Dr. Ellie Sattler in "Jurassic Park" dir. by Steven Spielberg - played by Laura Dern
• Dana Scully in "The X-Files" (medical doctor; but repeatedly describes herself as a scientist)
• Dr. Anna Senoz in Life by Gwyneth Jones
• Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in "Doctor Who" (polymath)
• Diana Skouris in "The 4400"
• Marie-Josèphe St. Croix, in Vonda McIntyre, The Moon and the Sun (1997)
• Susan Storm in Fantastic Four (2005 film) (a geneticist) and in Ultimate Fantastic Four (a biotech)
• Jane Summers, in story by John Wyndham
• Takver in The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Ida Teeter in "Sick Girl" (lesbian entomologist)
• Anna van Tuyl (psychologist) in The Rose by [[Charles Harness (1953)
• Lily Unser in "Matryoshka" ("Millennium (TV series)" 3x14 (1999)) - a brilliant biologist
• Barbara Urie, in Minus Time by Catherine Bush (1993) (sort of present day)
• Kitti Ping Yung and her daughter Wind Blossom in Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey

Scientists by work

• Female Victorian scientist in "Dear Froggy" by Patricia Anthony in Eating Memories
• Catherine Asaro, Sunrise Alley
• Gregory Benford, COSM
• Protagonist of Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh is a female geneticist.
• Julie E. Czerneda's Survival (Species Imperative #1)
• Greg Egan, Distress
• Greg Egan, Teranesia
• Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's "Sultana's Dream" (1905) depicts Ladyland, where the peaceful revolution that overturned purdah was led by lady scientists
• Lesbian scientists in "Time Gypsy" by Ellen Klages
• Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
• Jonathan Lethem, As She Climbed Across the Table
• See also "The Gods of Reorth" in Elizabeth A. Lynn's collection, The Woman Who Loved the Moon and Other Stories
• scientist in Karen Marie Christa Minns, Calling Rain
• Protagonist of Naomi Mitchison's Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962)
• Marge Piercy, He, She, and It
• Story by Cherry Potts
• Contact by Carl Sagan (book and movie)
• Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
• Connie Willis, Passage
• Protagonist of Outbreak (movie)
• "The Saint" (spyfiction: cold fusion invented by a woman scientist, who the spy/thief falls in love with)
• "Mimic" dir. by Guillermo del Toro - a team of scientists includes Mia Sorvino as an entomologist
• Dr. Zira in Planet of the Apes is a psychologist and veterinarian

• Grace in How I Saved the World (1985) by Philip Slater

Inventors

• Violet Baudelaire in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket
• Tinker by Wen Spencer

Inventors by work

• Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach (young girl invents efficient solar battery & does not patent it, distributing it freely instead)

Further reading

• Women in Science bookshelf
• Women in Science blog
• "Fictional Female Scientists" in mystery as well as SF