Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (10 November 1887 – 25 November 1973) was a Romanian

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

who was one of the first women to obtain a degree in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

.Michallon, Clémence (10 November 2018
Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu: 5 things you need to know about one of the world's first female engineers
Independent.co.uk She was born in the Romanian town of Galați but qualified in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she managed a hospital in Romania.

Early life and education

Elisa Zamfirescu was born in Galați,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, on 10 November 1887. Her father, Atanase Leonida, was a career officer while her mother, Matilda Gill, was the daughter of a French-born engineer. She was one of 11 children; among her siblings were

Dimitrie Leonida Dimitrie Leonida (May 23, 1883–March 14, 1965) was a Romanian energy engineer. Born in Fălticeni, his father Atanase was a cavalry officer, while his mother (née Gill) was the daughter of a French building engineer. He had seven surviving ...

, also an engineer, and

Gheorghe Leonida Gheorghe Leonida (1892/93–1942) was a Romanian sculptor known for creating the head of '' Christ the Redeemer'', the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Biography Gheorghe Leonida was born in Galați, in 1892 (1893 according t ...

, a sculptor. Due to prejudices against women in the sciences, Zamfirescu was rejected by the School of Bridges and Roads in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. In 1909 she was accepted at the Royal Academy of Technology Berlin,

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the ...

. She graduated in 1912, with a degree in engineering. It has been claimed that Zamfirescu was the world's first female engineer, but Englishwoman

Nina Cameron Graham Nina Cameron Walley (''née'' Graham; 11 March 1891-24 March 1974) was the first woman to receive an engineering degree in Britain. Early life and education Nina Cameron Graham was born in Liscard, Cheshire to Mary Cameron Graham (née Slater ...

also gained a degree in civil engineering in 1912, from the University of Liverpool and the Irish engineer

Alice Perry Alice Jacqueline Perry (24 October 1885 – 21 April 1969) was one of the first women in Europe to graduate with a degree in engineering. Early life and education Born in Wellpark, Galway in 1885, Alice was one of five daughters and a son of ...

graduated six years before either of them: in 1906.

Career

Returning to Romania, Zamfirescu worked as an assistant at the Geological Institute of Romania. During World War I, she joined the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

and ran a hospital at

Mărășești Mărășești () is a small town in Vrancea County, Western Moldavia, Romania. It administers six villages: Călimănești, Haret, Modruzeni, Pădureni, Siretu and Tișița. Geography The town is located in the eastern part of the county, on th ...

Romania. In 1917 her hospital received the wounded from the

Battle of Mărășești The Battle of Mărășești (6 August 1917 – 3 September 1917) was the last major battle between the German Empire and the Kingdom of Romania on the Romanian front during World War I. Romania was mostly occupied by the Central Powers, but t ...

between the German and the Romanian armies. It was a victory by Romania over 28 days during which there were over 12,000 Romanian and over 10,000 of the invaders who were wounded. Around this time, she met and married chemist Constantin Zamfirescu, brother of the politician and writer

Duiliu Zamfirescu Duiliu Zamfirescu (30 October 1858 – 3 June 1922) was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a while ...

. After the war, Zamfirescu returned to the Geological Institute. She led several geology laboratories and participated in various field studies, including some that identified new resources of coal, shale, natural gas, chromium, bauxite and copper. Zamfirescu also taught physics and chemistry.

Later life and death

Zamfirescu retired in 1963, aged 75. In retirement she was involved in activism for

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as ...

. She died at the age of 86 on 25 November 1973. An award for women working in science and technology was established in her name, the Premiul Elisa Leonida-Zamfirescu.

Honours and awards

Zamfirescu was the first woman member of AGIR (General Association of Romanian Engineers). A street in Sector 1 of Bucharest bears her name, and she was honoured with a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

on the anniversary of her birthday in 2018.

References

External links

* "Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu" in
Pioneers: Trailblazing women in the arts, sciences and society
'' 2019 exhibition by ''

Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...

'' (CC By-SA) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zamfirescu, Elisa Leonida Technical University of Berlin alumni Romanian civil engineers 20th-century Romanian engineers Romanian women engineers People from Galați 1887 births 1973 deaths 20th-century women engineers