Erna Hamburger (14 September 1911 – 15 May 1988) was a Swiss engineer and professor. In 1957, she became professor of electrometry at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

. She was the first woman in the history of

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

to be named a professor at a

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

university.

Early life and education

Hamburger was born on 14 September 1911, in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

to Frederick and Else Müller. She went to secondary school in

Kissingen Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which be ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. She first started secondary school at an all-girls' school, and then moved on to be the only girl in her engineering classes. In 1933, Hamburger received an engineering-electrician diploma from the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. Hamburger also received a doctorate in technical sciences from the same school in 1936.

Career

In 1942, Hamburger was employed as an electrical engineer at Paillard SA in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland. Before becoming a professor at the

, Hamburger was the head of work at the electrotechnical laboratory at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. In 1957, Hamburger was appointed as the first woman in the history of Switzerland to be named professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. When this occurred, the president of the school, Maurice Cosandey, announced, "It is both a brilliant consecration and a measure of the backwardness that characterizes our country as regards the promotion of women." Other positions Hamburger held include president of the Swiss Association of Women in Liberal and Commercial Careers, president of the Association of University Women of

Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...

, and vice president of the

International Federation of University Women Graduate Women International (GWI), originally named the International Federation of University Women (IFUW), is an international organisation for women university graduates. IFUW was founded in 1919 following the First World War by both British and ...

. One of her major innovations was the creation of an apparatus for radio-wave reception. This research included topics such as a system of optical registration from tone

frequencies Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

and ultra-short waves. Hamburger joined the

Swiss military The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, sol ...

in 1939 and was promoted to chief of the

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

troops in 1950.

Legacy

Hamburger was an advocate for

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

. Shortly after her death, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Women in Science and Humanities Foundation was created. The primary goal of this foundation is to promote and support women in higher education. Every year, the Erna Hamburger Prize is awarded to "the most influential woman in science" that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamburger, Erna 1911 births 1988 deaths Academic staff of the University of Lausanne Swiss women engineers 20th-century women engineers Belgian emigrants to Switzerland