Today, the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó  and Drew Weissman for their innovative work that led to the life-saving mRNA COVID vaccines.  Ms. Karikó, a Hungarian-American biochemist and researcher at Penn Medicine is one of (now) 61 women who have received this award, while Dr. Weissman, a physician and researcher also at Penn Medicine, is one of over 890 male laureates.  This wonderful announcement stirred my feminist passion and also reminded me of my lifelong interest in science.  Maybe I could have been a scientist.  If I was born 20 years later, could things have turned out differently?

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