Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu was an engineer and researcher in the field of geology.

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (Galați, November 10, 1887 - Bucharest, November 25, 1973) was an engineer and researcher in the field of geology. He was head of the laboratories of the Geological Institute of Romania and a member of the General Association of Romanian Engineers. In her country she is considered the first female engineer in the world, although some female engineers who obtained the title earlier, such as Alice Perry or Jenny Markelin-Svensson, are known and their contribution to research on the wealth of Romania's minerals have been recognized worldwide. He contributed to the progress of the Romanian economy and the dissemination of Romanian as a scientific language through his original works presented in congresses and symposia.

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu studied primary school in Galati and high school in Bucharest. After high school, she enrolled at the School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest (now Polytechnic University), but was rejected due to the prejudices of the time, which denied the right of women to pursue such studies. She went to Berlin, and in 1909 she enrolled at the Technical University of Berlin, where she graduated in 1912. When she enrolled, the dean tried to persuade her to resign, citing "the three K" (kirche, kinder, küche – church, children, kitchen) that defined the profile expected of women at that time.

The directors of the Academy were faced with a new situation because she was the first candidate in the history of the Academy, but she wrote and spoke German perfectly, had an excellent knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry, and finally they to accept The story goes that one of her teachers, seeing her in the classroom, said "The kitchen is the place for women, not the Polytechnic". During her studies she was ignored both by the professors, including the dean, and by her classmates, however, when she graduated in 1912, the dean named her as: "Die Fleissigste der Fleissigsten" (the most diligent of the diligent ).

Although she was offered a job as an engineer at the BASF company in Germany, she returned to her country, where she obtained a senior engineering position in the laboratory of the Geological Institute in Bucharest. Soon after, the First World War began and he went to the front collaborating with the Red Cross, where he took charge of the management of field hospitals in the vicinity of Mărăşeşti. At the front, she met the engineer Constantin Zamfirescu, brother of the writer Duiliu Zamfirescu, whom she married in 1918. They had two daughters who studied teaching and engineering. After the war, she resumed work in the army Geological Institute, where he directed a laboratory in which he introduced new techniques for drinking water analysis and also participated in the main field studies on the identification and analysis of new resources, such as shales , natural gas, chromium, bauxite or copper. His research was collected in two monographs: Contributions to the study of bauxite in Romania (1931) and Chemical study of chromium in the Orsova Mountains (1939).

She was also a physics and chemistry teacher at the "Pitar Moș" School for Girls and at the School of Electricians and Mechanics in Bucharest, directed by her brother Demetri. He shared his experience in the field of the chemical composition of mineral substances, teaching the most appropriate methods for the analysis and exploitation of results. But among his many interests, he was particularly concerned with the training of young chemists. He retired on May 1, 1963 at the age of 75.

She was the first woman member of the General Association of Romanian Engineers and the International Association of University Women, during which she made an essential contribution to the recognition of the work of women in Romania. As chairman of the Commission for the Struggle for Peace at the Geological Institute, she took a stand against atomic weapons on the disarmament commission at Lancester House in London, where she insisted on the danger of nuclear weapons.

On the initiative of the National Confederation of Women in Romania, in 1997, the "Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu Award" was established, which is awarded to women who have excelled in the field of science and technology. Also in the Museum of Technology and in the National Museum of Geology in Bucharest, there are informative panels of her biography and other female engineers.

Source: Wikipedia