Laura Bassi (nonfiction)
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (October 1711 – 20 February 1778) was an Italian physicist and academic. She received a doctoral degree from the University of Bologna in May 1732, the second degree ever bestowed on a woman by a university.
On October 29, 1732, the University of Bologna granted Bassi’s professorship in philosophy at the University of Bologna thus also making her a member of the Academy of the Sciences. Bassi was the first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university in Europe, and is recognized as the first woman in the world to earn a university chair in a scientific field of studies.
The first lecture she gave was titled "De aqua corpore naturali elemento aliorum corporum parte universi", ("Water as a natural element of all other bodies"). The University, however, still held a value that women were to lead a private life. From 1746 to 1777 she gave only one formal dissertation per year ranging in topic from the problem of gravity to electricity. She gave at least thirty-one dissertations to the university. Because she could not lecture publicly at the university regularly, she began conducting private lessons and experiments from home in the year of 1749. This allowed her to veer away from the constraints of the university and explore new ideas.
She was mainly interested in Newtonian physics and taught courses on the subject for 28 years. She also carried out experiments of her own in all aspects of physics.
Bassi was instrumental in bringing Newton's ideas of physics and natural philosophy to Italy.
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- Isaac Newton (nonfiction)
- Physics (nonfiction)
- Elena Cornaro Piscopia (nonfiction) - philosopher of noble descent who in 1678 became one of the first women to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
External links:
- Laura Bassi @ Wikipedia