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Laura Hezner
Born	15 September, 1862 Bavaria, Germany
Died	10 October, 1916 Pfronten, Bavaria, Germany
Nationality	German
Education	ETH Zurich
Scientific career
Fields	French Philosophy Mineralogy Natural Sciences
Institutions	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ETH Zurich

Biography

Early Life

Lauren Hezner was born on September 15, 1862 in a small town in Bavaria. She was the second oldest of 5 children with her family making a living off the railway. Prior to the death of her mother when she was 12 she attended a monastic school in Sigmaringen. After the passing of her mother she was sent to live with her aunt along with her siblings.

From a young age Laura found an interest in several different fields such as philosophy, art, literature, and the study of ancient language. Her belief that the best method to study ancient texts was using their original form and language lead Laura to learn many languages, including Hebrew and Sanskrit.

In pursuit of her love of art Laura completed a French Education program, going on to teach at an Arts Education School.

Laura took charge of her house and the care of her siblings from her father shortly after her older sister was wed while still continuing her philosophy studies . However, the stress of her studies and managing the household caused her to have a nervous breakdown which resulted in a long-lasting nervous crisis. Fortunately for her she received the assistance of an older female friend Laura who was able to help manage the crisis she was experiencing during that time. 

Education

Laura obtained her early education in Sigmaringen, Frankfurt, and Munich, attending studies of modern language and drawing at the Kunstakademie.

It was not until the age of 36 that Laura had a change of heart with regards to her profession, and following a friend's advice in the year of 1898 Laura began her studies at the technical school in Zurich, originally choosing to study ethnology. Laura soon had an about-face and switched to the department of Natural Science at the Swiss Polytechnic school, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, igniting her passion for the natural sciences. Her love of the field was evident to all around her, once writing in an essay on “Life in the Stone” that “The rigid world of stones is full of change and movement and takes part in a wonderful way in the incessant cycle of becoming!”

In 1901, Laura graduated with distinction specializing in eclogites and amphibolites. She always was able to get a reference to occurrences within Oetzthal. .

In 1903 Laura received a Ph.D through special Honorable accomplishments. In 1909 she chose to continue her studies beginning her habituation process.

Academic Career

Promoted in 1903, she became an assistant at ETH Zurich to Ulrich Grubenmann who helped her broaden her knowledge and reach within the scientific community. In July of 1909 she began the habilitation process and by October of the same year her request was approved, which commenced her post-doctoral studies. Eventually she managed to acquire a position as a private lecturer at the Department of Natural Sciences in her alma mater, becoming the first female lecturer at ETH Zurich. In 1909 Grubenmann assisted her in gaining a promotion, which ultimately landed her a new career as a professor at the universities of ETH Zurich and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. After she stopped working as a professor, she remained at both universities as a scientific assistant to Professor Grubenmann.

Illness and Death

Unfortunately, Laura’s studies in Geology would be cut short in 1916 at the young age of 54, having been sick for some time. Some accounts speculate that her illness began to develop as early as when Laura was 36 years old, however when she became ill, the cause, and nature of the illness remains unknown. The illness was not associated with anything asides from the “insidious suffering” it brought upon the individual with sickness.

Around 1915 Laura's illness took a serious turn, in order to cope with the pain she soon underwent a surgical procedure, which unfortunately failed to make any improvement to her illness. The failure of the surgery was evident on July 1916 when her illness returned. She soon started relying on medical intervention that also failed to improve upon her health and eventually on October 10^th, 1916 Laura passed away, a thankful end to her long suffering. With the help of her family Laura was properly buried in a cemetery in Pfronten so that she may be surrounded by the mountains that she loved so dearly.

Women in Science

First female scientists

Leading up to 1897 no women in Switzerland were able to pursue a career as a researcher until Marie Baum became the first female scientific research assistant, causing a major riot and resistance against her employment which was initially limited for one year. Marie's courageous act served as an inspiration to other women such as Hedwig Delpy and Laura Hezner, who in 1909 became the first women to obtain a doctoral degree and managed to acquire a postdoctoral lecture qualification in 1910, unfortunately neither women continued their research at the ETH.

Marianne Plehns, an ETH graduate in Agronomy, was amongst the first women to be appointed for a professorship in Germany. During these years the chances of female scientists finding adequate employment was very limited, especially when due to how many scientists succumbed to public criticism with exceptions from a few professors such as geologist Heim, the husband of Marie Heim-Vögtlin the first female in Switzerland to become a medical doctor, or biologist Schröder. As the first female Swiss student at the University of Zurich, Marie caused a major outrage and controversy across the country. Currently there is a program named in her honour as a promoter for women of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Women underrepresented

Just as with the streets, which were traditionally named after persons as a whole, it is also clear amongst scientists' roads women have so far hardly been honoured. Only four women with an academic career hold such a distinction with the star of the quartet being unsurprisingly the multiple Nobel laureate Marie Curie. Emilie Kempin-Spyri also holds a spot in the quartet due to her being Switzerland's first juror. Laura Hezner the mineralogist habilitate whom in 1910 was the first woman at the ETH holds a similar honour. The fourth member is Marienbaum, a German politician of the Weimar Republic and ETH student.

Other important scholars of the city have so far not been paid attention. Among them Albert Einstein's wife Mileva Marić, one of the first physics students at ETH Zurich. She even fell into oblivion for a long time - she was buried in a little prominent tomb in Zurich. Until 2009, when a Serbian Diasporaminium erected a memorial plaque in the cemetery on Käferholzstrasse.

As the following anecdote shows, women in Zürich's street names still emerge as a marginal note: Röntgenstrasse leads to the inn where Wilhelm Röntgen once acquainted his future wife, Anna Bertha, the daughter of the host. She also contributed to the invention of X-rays with her husband often testing her invention. She did not receive any mention in the streets of Zurich.

Notable Work

Habilitationsgesuch by Laura Hezner is her habilitation request of July 14, 1909. In it she writes:

"The reasons for the application are the following: since 1902 as an assistant in the chemical laboratory of the mineralogical institute, I had the opportunity to keep track of the chemical side of the mineralogy as well as the petrography, so that the chemistry of the rocks has become an essential branch of the society." (...) "Since, of course, the teaching which can be given to the interns during the laboratory work is incomplete, because it offers only what is required by the moment, it does not seem to me worthless to offer them the chemical contrasts in a certain degree. Also, some students of the chemical department would like to know the chemical systems offered by nature itself. "

At its meeting of July 21, 1909, the school council handed the question to the conference of the Department for the Formation of Specialists in Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Professor Ulrich Grubenmann, the supervisor of Laura Hezner, worked out the report. At its meeting of 21 October, 1909 the Cabinet Conference took a positive note of its recommendation for the adoption of the petition. On the other hand, the conference committee sent a short report together with the report to the President of the School Council. At the meeting of 27 November, 1909 the school council again decided without discussion:

"Frl. Dr. Laura Hezner, of Munich, will be admitted as a private lecturer at the XI. Department of Natural Sciences of the Federal Polytechnic School to announce and hold lectures on chemical mineralogy and petrography. "

This Privatdozent was the first of his or rather the first of her sex at the federal institute of education. Without any ifs and buts, without deliberate bends to prevent or at least delay, the decision makers had introduced this novelty. No comparison to the embarrassing back and forth until the appointment of the first assistant a few years ago. Had the responsible persons since then turned to academic feminists? Or had the disagreements turned out to be so uncontrolled that protocollical discretion seemed to be required?

Literature

At the ETH Zurich university library, you will find the documents on Laura Hezner's studies, assistant, postdoctoral and teaching activities.

Publications by Laura Hezner can be found in the knowledge portal of the ETH-Bibliothek.

1916: Grubenmann Ulrich: Laura Hezner (1862-1916), in: NZZ No. 1734, 31 October 1916.

1916: Port, Frieda: Dr. Laura Hezner. Privatdozentin at the Federal Technical University of Zurich. A memoir, in: The woman. Monthly for the entire women's life of our time. Hgg. Helene Lange and Gertrud Bäumer, Berlin, 24.Jg. 1916-1917, pp. 352-357. This is the quote from Paul Niggli.

1928: Brockmann-Jerosch, Marie: Review, in: The Women's Studies at Swiss Universities, eds. From the Swiss Association of Academics, Zurich / Leipzig / Stuttgart, 1928, p. 74-79.

1947: Kübler, Arnold: Öppi the student, Zurich 1947.