Ellen Gleditsch

Ellen Gleditsch (29 December 1879 – 5 June 1968) was a Norwegian radiochemist and Norway's second female professor. Starting her career as an assistant to Marie Curie, she became a pioneer in radiochemistry, establishing the half-life of radium and helping demonstrate the existence of isotopes.

Gleditsch was born in 1879 in Mandal, Norway. Although she graduated from high school at the top of her class, the college entrance exams were not available to women at the time. Therefore, she worked as a pharmacy assistant where she was able to work toward a non-academic degree in chemistry and pharmacology in 1902. In 1905 with the support of her mentor Eyvind Bødtker, she passed the university entrance exam, but chose to study in Paris.

After starting her career in pharmacy, she went on to study radioactivity at the Sorbonne and work in Marie Curie's laboratory from 1907 to 1912. At Curie's lab, Gleditsch performed a technique called fractional crystallisations, which purified radium. The work, which was highly specialized and few could complete, allowed her laboratory fees to be waived. She spent five years of analysis with Curie and returned even after leaving the lab to supervise experiments. In 1911, she received a "Licenciée en sciences degree" from the Sorbonne and was awarded a teaching post at University of Oslo. After working one year, she won the first scholarship ever given to a woman from the American-Scandinavian Association to study in the United States, but was turned down by both of the schools at which she applied.

She went anyway and despite having been rejected was able to work at the laboratory of Bertram Boltwood at Yale University, where she measured the half-life of radium, creating a standard measurement that was used for many years. One of the scientists who had originally turned her away from Yale, co-authored two articles with her and in June 1914, Smith College awarded her an honorary doctorate for her work. In 1913–14, she returned to the University of Oslo and became the second woman to be elected to Oslo‘s Academy of Science in 1917. During the 1920s, Gleditsch made several trips to France to assist Curie, as well as a trip to Cornwall to investigate a mine located there.

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