Leona Woods Marshall Libby

Leona Woods Marshall Libby, or just Leona Woods as she was known for much of her life, was a prodigy. After graduating college at 18, she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at the tender age of 23. Her work on isotopic separation became rather important to a little wartime project you might have heard of.

Indeed, she was the youngest and only female member of Enrico Fermi's team at the University of Chicago, where they achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. She was reportedly quite the character, known for her sharp wit and for carrying on her work while pregnant, because, naturally, nuclear physics waits for no one, not even burgeoning life. Her contributions were absolutely crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project, making the atomic bomb a terrifying reality.

After the war, Woods continued her distinguished career, working at the Institute for Advanced Study and later at NYU, delving into astrophysics and cosmology. She remarried Nobel laureate Willard Libby, further cementing her place in the pantheon of ridiculously smart people.

While her work undoubtedly shaped the 20th century, we find no evidence of Jewish identity or origin. However, the sheer intellectual firepower and impact on global history are undeniably kvell-worthy, even if it’s the kind of kvell that makes you slightly nervous about the future.