There are countless men and women who have contributed to the field of science. Anne Pockels is one of those women only she never had the formal education many modern day contributors to the field possess. She was born in 1862 in Italy where her father was working as an Austrian army officer. In 1871, her father retired from his life as an officer due to illness and promptly moved the family to Brunswick.

Agnes Pockels wasn't able to attend school for a formal education because she was needed by her family to care for her ill parents. However, her brother did obtain a university level education. Through him, Pockels had the opportunity to use her brother's school textbooks and other tools to teach herself.

Pockels decided to use household items and the books that she studied there to make her home into her own lab. She soon began running experiments and those experiments led her to discover the slide trough. This trough was used for measurement focuses and ten years after her discovery, Lord Raleigh supported her and her work was documented in the published work titled Nature.

Because Lord Raleigh originally recognized Agnes Pockels as a major contributor in the field of science, she began to receive recognition. Working with Henri Devaux, Pockels won a Laura Leonard Prize in 1931. In 1932, Agnes Pockels received a very well deserved honor when she was awarded the Carolina-Wilhemina University honorable doctorate degree. She died in 1935.