Elfriede Tungl (4 July 1922 – 25 August 1981) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n civil engineer. She was the first Austrian woman to earn a doctorate in civil engineering and in 1973 became the first female associate professor at the Vienna University of Technology.

Early life and education

Elfriede Tungl was born on 4 July 1922 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Tungl enrolled in mathematics, physics and chemistry at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

in 1940, but changed subjects after one year and studied

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

, graduating from the

TU Wien TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

in 1948. She received her doctorate from the TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) in 1950. Tungl started work in the bridge construction department of the General Directorate of the Austrian Federal Railways, the

ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways (german: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, formally (lit. "Austrian Federal Railways Holding Stock Company") and formerly the or ''BBÖ''), now commonly known as ÖBB, is the national railway company ...

. In 1952, she became a university research assistant working on issues related to the theory of

structural system A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

s. In 1963, her

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

(post doctorate degree) at the Vienna University of Technology looked at the fields of

elasticity Elasticity often refers to: *Elasticity (physics), continuum mechanics of bodies that deform reversibly under stress Elasticity may also refer to: Information technology * Elasticity (data store), the flexibility of the data model and the cl ...

and material strength theory. Tungl was the second woman to

habilitate Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

at this university, and the first woman to habilitate in these fields. She is thought to have been the first female civil engineer in Europe to hold a doctorate.

Career

Tungl taught as a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

in the US from 1965 to 1968, and in 1973 she became the first woman to be appointed associate professor at the Vienna University of Technology. She became head of the department of experimental Spannungs- und Dehnungsmessung, (stress and strain measurement) until she retired for health reasons in 1975. Tungl died in Vienna on 25 August 1981.

Early life and education

Career

References

Further reading