Vera Popova
| Vera Popova | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
(née Bogdanovskaya) 17 September 1867 Saint Petersburg |
| Died | 8 May 1896 (aged 28)(Gregorian calendar); 26 April (Julian Calendar). Izhefskii Zavod |
| Cause of death | Explosion |
| Known for | Early Russian chemist |
| Spouse(s) | General Jacob Kozmich Popov |
| Parent(s) | Yevstafy Ivanovich Bogdanovsky and Maria Alexeyevna Bogdanovskaya |
Vera Yevstafievna Popova, née Vera Bogdanovskaya (Вера Евстафьевна Попова; 17 September 1867 – 8 May 1896) was a Russian chemist. She was one of the first female chemists in Russia, and the first Russian female author of a chemistry textbook. She "probably became the first woman to die in the cause of chemistry" as a result of an explosion in her laboratory.
Vera Bogdanovskaya was born in 1868 in Saint Petersburg. Her father, Evstafy Ivanovich Bogdanovsky, was a professor of surgery. Her parents arranged for their three children to be educated at home. In 1878, she began studying at the Smolny Institute at the age of 11. Starting in 1883 she spent four years at the Bestuzhev Courses and after this she worked for two years in laboratories at the Academy of Sciences and the Military Surgical Academy. In 1889 Bogdanovskaya left Russia for Switzerland, where she undertook a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Geneva. She defended her research into dibenzyl ketone in 1892. Bogdanovskaya wanted to work on H-C≡P (methylidynephosphane), but had been persuaded to concentrate instead on dibenzyl ketone by her doctoral supervisor, Professor Carl Gräbe. She also worked with Dr Philippe Auguste Guye in Geneva, who was working on stereochemistry.
Bogdanovskaya returned to Saint Petersburg in 1892 to work at the Bestuzhev Courses, where she taught chemistry. This was an institution founded in 1878 to encourage Russian women to stay in Russia to study. She was working as an assistant to Prof. L'vov teaching the first courses in stereochemistry. Her reputation as a lecturer and her knowledge of teaching enabled her to write her first book, a textbook on basic chemistry. She wrote reviews, translated academic papers on chemistry and, together with her professor, published the works of Alexander Butlerov, who had died in 1886. Between 1891 and 1894, she published a number of papers based on her doctoral thesis.
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