Stories by Hannah Sammut

Hannah Sammut is a Boston-based journalist with a background in storytelling, production, and strategic communication. She has reported on a variety of topics, including arts, culture, finance, and relationships between municipal agencies and communities. She studied journalism and art history at Northeastern University.

An illustration of a woman scientist standing on a lit stage in front of a poster in a spotlight with other women scientists exiting the stage around her

TechnologyMarch 13, 2026

Why did the public forget Katharine Burr Blodgett’s brilliant legacy?

We trace the final chapter of Katharine Burr Blodgett’s career, her retirement from GE and her disappearance from public memory

Katie Hafner, Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Sophia Levin, Hannah Sammut, The Lost Women of Science Initiative

An illustration of a woman scientist peaking out of a door with an explosion of light emanating from behind her as other darkened doors with dark figures stand in doors in the hallway in front of her

TechnologyMarch 5, 2026

Katharine Burr Blodgett kept an inner struggle out of sight as she made history in the laboratory

At the height of her career, chemist and physicist Katharine Burr Blodgett faced challenges that not even her closest colleagues suspected

Katie Hafner, Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Sophia Levin, Hannah Sammut, The Lost Women of Science Initiative

An illustration of a woman scientist sitting at a window looking out amongst clouds and newspaper headlines

TechnologyFebruary 26, 2026

Katharine Burr Blodgett made a breakthrough when she discovered ‘invisible glass’

When Katharine Burr Blodgett discovered nonreflecting glass, the General Electric Company’s public relations machine made her a star

Katie Hafner, Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Sophia Levin, Hannah Sammut, The Lost Women of Science Initiative

An illustration of a woman scientist holding up a slide to the window light

History of ScienceFebruary 12, 2026

Katharine Burr Blodgett’s brilliance had to fit into the role of the only woman in a lab filled with men—it was the air she breathed

From Schenectady, N.Y., to the University of Cambridge, Katharine Burr Blodgett’s brilliance impressed the world’s leading physicists

Katie Hafner, Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Sophia Levin, Hannah Sammut, The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Layers of Brilliance illustration of a cartoon woman standing next to a lightbulb and building

History of ScienceFebruary 5, 2026

Katharine Burr Blodgett’s brilliant career began at the ‘House of Magic’

When a young Katharine Burr Blodgett joined future Nobel Prize winner Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Company’s industrial research laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y, it was the start of her brilliant career

Katie Hafner, Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Sophia Levin, Hannah Sammut, The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Layers of Brilliance illustration of a cartoon woman standing on a notebook

History of ScienceJanuary 29, 2026

The chemical genius of Katharine Burr Blodgett

The story of a woman whose discoveries in materials science quietly shape our everyday world but whose legacy was long eclipsed by the famous scientist she worked with at the General Electric Company

Katie Hafner, Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Sophia Levin, Hannah Sammut, The Lost Women of Science Initiative