Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler (28 October 1879 – 21 December 1933) was an
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
physicist and science teacher. In 1903, she became the first woman to earn a physics doctorate at the
University of Vienna. She established the first ''
Wiener Handelsakademie für Mädchen'' (Vienna Commercial Academy for Girls), as well as a grammar school for girls, in 1907.
Biography
Early years
Olga Steindler was born in
Vienna to lawyer Leopold Steindler and Caroline Steindler,
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Goldberg.
She had three siblings. As women could not take the ''
Matura'' (comparable to A-Level exams) in Vienna at the time, Olga Steindler went to
Prague, where she took her exam on 7 July 1899.
Steindler began to study mathematics and physics at
Vienna University
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public university, public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the Geogra ...
in 1899, which was then newly possible for women. She wrote her
thesis on the validity of the
Helmholtz equation
In mathematics, the eigenvalue problem for the Laplace operator is known as the Helmholtz equation. It corresponds to the linear partial differential equation
\nabla^2 f = -k^2 f,
where is the Laplace operator (or "Laplacian"), is the eigenv ...
for various elements.
Her doctoral adviser was
Franz Serafin Exner. In 1903, she became the first woman to earn a physics doctorate at Vienna University.
In the same year, she took her teacher's exam for secondary schools.
Work for girls' and women's education
For some years, Olga Steindler gave science lectures for women and girls on physics experiments, electricity, and other topics. She also taught at a girls'
gymnasium (roughly equivalent to a preparatory high school or a grammar school) in Vienna. In 1907, she founded a girls' gymnasium in
Leopoldstadt, Vienna,
and the first commercial academy for girls (''Wiener Handelsakademie für Mädchen'') together with .
She became principal of the ''Handelsakademie'', which today is located in
Josefstadt.
Private life
In 1908, she married her former fellow student, physicist
Felix Ehrenhaft
Felix Ehrenhaft (24 April 1879 – 4 March 1952) was an Austrian physicist who contributed to atomic physics, to the measurement of electrical charges and to the optical properties of metal colloids. He was known for his maverick and controversial ...
.
They had two children, Johannes Leopold Friedrich, born on 10 October 1915, and Anna Maria Luise, born 19 November 1917. Both emigrated to the United States in the 1930s.
Later life and death
Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler was awarded the Austrian
honorary title ''Regierungsrat'' in 1927 or 1928 for her commitment to girls' and women's education, which was a rare distinction for women at the time,
and the honorary title ''Hofrat'' in 1931.
She was diagnosed with
breast cancer in 1929. She had surgery, but never fully recovered.
Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler acquired
pneumonia in 1933 and died on 21 December that year from
lung embolism
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...
, aged 54.
Publications
* Steindler, Olga: ''Über die Temperaturcoeffizienten einiger Jodelemente'' ("About the temperature coefficients of some iodine elements"), doctoral thesis, 1903.
* Steindler, Olga: ''Die Farbempfindlichkeit des normalen und des farbenblinden Auges'' ("The colour sensitivity of the normal and colour-blind eye"), 1906.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenhaft-Steindler, Olga
1879 births
1933 deaths
19th-century Austrian people
20th-century Austrian people
Scientists from Vienna
University of Vienna alumni
Austrian women physicists