US scientist Frances Arnold became the fifth women to win a chemistry Nobel on Wednesday, the day after Canada's Donna Strickland became just the third woman—and first in 55 years—to clinch the physics award.

Twelve women have won the medicine Nobel, meaning there have been 19 female winners (Marie Curie received two separate prizes) out of more than 600 laureates across the three scientific categories.

Physics

1903 - Marie Curie

1963 - Maria Goeppert-Mayer

2018 - Donna Strickland

Chemistry

1911 - Marie Curie

1935 - Irene Joliot-Curie

1964 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

2009 - Ada Yonath

2018 - Frances Arnold

Medicine

1947 - Gerty Cori

1977 - Rosalyn Yalow

1983 - Barbara McClintock

1986 - Rita Levi-Montalcini

1988 - Gertrude Elion

1995 - Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard

2004 - Linda Buck

2008 - Francoise Barre-Sinoussi

2009 - Elizabeth Blackburn

2009 - Carol Greider

2014 - May-Britt Moser

2015 - Youyou Tu

© 2018 AFP