1 00:00:01,649 --> 00:00:05,110 I'm Lucian and I'm going to talk about Elisa Leonidas Zanfirescu. 2 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:15,259 Elisa Leonidas Zanfirescu was born in Galaz the 10th of November 1887 and she died in 3 00:00:15,259 --> 00:00:17,920 Bucharest the 25th of November 1973. 4 00:00:18,879 --> 00:00:22,539 She was known for being the first female chemical engineer in the world. 5 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:25,219 She came from a family full of engineers. 6 00:00:26,399 --> 00:00:31,980 Her father was French and was an engineer and her brother became an engineer too. 7 00:00:31,980 --> 00:00:40,219 She had two children, Anca and Maria. Anca became a chemist as she was, so her family was full of scientists. 8 00:00:42,909 --> 00:00:46,109 Her life as a scientist woman wasn't easy at all. 9 00:00:46,909 --> 00:00:57,250 One of ten siblings, Zanfirescu, wanted to study at the School of Roads and Ridges in Bucharest after earning a baccalaureate in the Mihai V. Tanzul High School. 10 00:00:57,729 --> 00:01:01,670 But, as usual in those years, she was rejected just for being a woman. 11 00:01:02,469 --> 00:01:09,769 Not being able of fulfilling her dreams, she moved to Germany in order to be accepted in the Royal Academy of Technology in Berlin. 12 00:01:10,629 --> 00:01:26,090 There, her life wasn't a bed of roses neither, as one of her deans, which means an official in her college, told her that she should better focus on kirche, kinder and kuche, which in English means charge, children and cooking. 13 00:01:26,950 --> 00:01:36,489 But after coping with all of these prejudices and drawbacks she had, she managed to obtain her engineering degree, being one of the first women to do so. 14 00:01:37,530 --> 00:01:44,569 After her graduation, she was offered a position at BASF, which is a renowned chemical company in Germany. 15 00:01:45,069 --> 00:01:49,090 But she didn't accept it. Instead, she decided to return to Romania. 16 00:01:50,049 --> 00:01:57,489 there she became the first female member of agir which means general general association of 17 00:01:57,489 --> 00:02:04,959 romanian engineers when the first world war started she joined the red cross and led several 18 00:02:04,959 --> 00:02:13,699 hospitals in order to help their romanians military forces when the war ended she led 19 00:02:13,699 --> 00:02:17,939 several laboratories and field studies in the geological institute of romania 20 00:02:17,939 --> 00:02:25,620 in order to discover new techniques and methods to study Romania's natural resources such as coal, 21 00:02:25,620 --> 00:02:33,860 copper, natural gases. There she was known for spending time, lots of time, teaching young 22 00:02:33,860 --> 00:02:42,500 chemists. She was described, in fact she was described by one of her students as being a sort 23 00:02:42,500 --> 00:02:48,819 of locomotive that took everything after her and being brilliant in any field so she really focused 24 00:02:48,819 --> 00:02:59,729 on training young chemists after these studies at the geological institute of romania she taught 25 00:02:59,729 --> 00:03:04,449 physics and physics and chemistry in the peter school and in the school of electricians and 26 00:03:04,449 --> 00:03:14,080 mechanics in romania in bucharest she finally retired at the age of 75. besides her contributions 27 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:19,639 in science, she filed a complaint with the Disarmament Committees at the London Lancaster 28 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:26,199 House with a focus on nuclear threat. Basically, she thought that science should be used to 29 00:03:26,199 --> 00:03:37,599 improve and protect society, not to damage it and destroy it. Last month, the 10th of 30 00:03:37,599 --> 00:04:51,639 November, Google made a doodle of her.