Google on Saturday honoured Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu, a Romanian engineer, with a doodle.
Born on November 10, 1887, in the Romanian port city of Galați, Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu made history by becoming one of the first women engineers in Europe.
But her road to success wasn’t without obstacles. She was rejected because of her gender from the School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest, her first choice of institution for study, upon completing high school from the Central School of Girls in Bucharest. She got a baccalaureate (bachelor's degree) from Mihai Viteazul High School.
She later applied to the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin and earned her degree in three years, becoming one of the first women engineers in Europe. One of the Deans at the college told her that it would be better if she focused on “Kirche, kinder, and kuche” (Church, children, and cooking), but she refused to back down. Ms. Zamfirescu went on to become the first female member of A.G.I.R. (General Association of Romanian Engineers), followed by running laboratories for the Geological Institute of Romania.
She passionately worked on innovative methods and analysing techniques to study natural resources such as coal, shale, natural gas, chromium, bauxite and copper in her lab. She also dedicated considerable hours in training and monitoring young researchers.
Her work was not limited to research and analysis but she also taught Physics and Chemistry at the Pitar Moş School of Girls and at the School of Electricians and Mechanics in Bucharest.
Mother of two daughters, Ms. Zamfirescu worked for Red Cross during the World War I. In 1912, Romania’s daily newspaper Minerva had declared, “The future of women in engineering is great...Miss Elisa Leonida passed the last final exam with great success, obtaining a Diploma in Engineering.” She had a street named in her honour in the Romanian capital in 1993. Ms. Zamfirescu passed away in 1973.
