Rosalind Franklin is a very good one. I like her story. I completely forgot about her.

I found this excellent site on female scientists.

http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/

I especially liked Rosalind Franklin, Mary Anning and Ada Byron. Curiously Marie Curie is not listed among the 16 women listed on the site.

I would say Marie Sklodowska Curie. Brilliant woman and close to my heart because of the same nationality as mine.

What about not very famous women? There is a few in my life I admire and take as an example. Namely my mum for business, PhD student and a postdoc I work with are also brilliant women.

I think it's more about good qualities, not just a known name.

My mum is brilliant at being a mum and teaching. She is also a born dipomat and has great communication skills and common sense (a very important and yet dying trait). But wouldn't a person look a bit off stating their family members as role models in an interview for a job or doctorate?

I don't know... didn't think of it.
I think you could get away with it if you had good reasons to support your choice.

And I also think that finding models in everyday life is quite importatnt. I would appreciate someone giving me a real everyday life one more than a known one. Think about how media (biography writers) are not always objective. You can never know what was the real story, while with everyday people you just know...

I disagree. The reason I said "my mum is great" is because she is my mum and I love her. I am not being objective. You either love or hate people around you. If it is an outsider then you only go with the facts surrounding their achievements; their research or business acumen etc.

It is hard for human beings to be objective. Everything is subjective.

Maybe we are subjective but I always try to look at people as objectively as possible.

I think I am objective about my mother.
She is a great business woman but a crap mother.
I admire her for what she did in her life but I have someone else to be my model of a perfect mum.

The postdoc I work with is someone I could't be frieds with but still I think she is a great example for others.

I am just saying that I didn't say my mum is my model because I love her and she is my mum.
I said that because my mother happens to be good at business. I prefer to have a real life example, who I know, I see what she is going through making decisions and dealing with everything than look up to Anita Roddick who I don't know at all.

Rebecca George/Wendy Hall/Grace Hopper/Ada Lovelace

Dare I say it, my supervisor is probably my main role model! She is a Professor, has a great research profile and also has 2 children. OK I might not agree with her about everything but I admire the way she views both family and career as equally important parts of her life and works hard to do both. I have a formal 'mentor', a male professor, and I think there is a lot about my position as a young female at the beginning of an academic career he just cannot understand.

Good to see another vote for Marie Curie, Mellory. I think this woman was amazing, if there is anyone that shows what commitment and dedication really means its her

Margaret Thatcher a great role model???!! I have to disagree with that! Yes she was a woman in a top position but in my opinion that is not sufficient to be a good role model.

'She is the reason that most women have a career whilst juggling a family and social life'.

That's just plain wrong. Most political commentators suggest MT actually set back the political careers of many women MP's by being anti-woman. For example, she never in 11 yrs in office had a women in her cabinet. That hardly makes her a female revolution icon.

No I'm wrong..there was ONE [see here http://politics.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,12913,1332209,00.html]

...'The other thing that women know but men don't is how annoying it is to be sexually discriminated against. Thatcher felt this very keenly when she was campaigning in Finchley, and complained often, but there's little evidence that she had a broader interest in women's working conditions. The Equal Pay Act as we know it may have been passed under her tenure (in 1984), but it was an amendment of the original 1970 act. At government level, too, she was markedly uninterested in the advancement of other women. Baroness Young popped up in cabinet very briefly, as leader of the Lords, but Thatcher made only eight other female ministerial appointments during her time in government - and only one went higher than junior minister'.

Says it all.

Excellent scientific women website. What about Condoleezza Rice - the US Secretary of State, she's very feisty!