Drawing Inspirations are pieces of art created by young NFT artists who are in the Flower Girls Art Fund. Each piece is inspired by a woman who has contributed to the world of science in a significant way.
In June 2022, I had the privilege of being part of the group of young artists supported by the Flower Girls and I accepted the challenge of drawing for Drawing Inspirations.
The Scientist proposed for me to draw, which I didn’t know, was Branca Edmée Marques ( 1899–1986).
Branca Edmée Marques was born on the 14th April of 1899, in Lisbon.
In 1931, she went to France to develop research in Nuclear Physics. She obtained her PhD in 1935, at the Faculty of Sorbonne, in Paris, under the supervision of Marie Curie. Back in Portugal, she ran the first Center of Investigation in Chemistry of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
In 1950, she published the work “New Data on the Behavior of Polonium in an Acid Environment” in the Portuguese Chemistry Society Magazine. In 1970, the same publication printed her paper “Radioactive Pollution in Natural Waters”, co-written with Maria Regina Sales Grade.
In 1966, she became a Chemical Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon, a position for which she had first qualified in 1954. Additionally, Marques was the first woman to become Head Professor of Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
She died on the 19th of July of 1986, in Lisbon.
Source and more info: She Thought It
How did Branca Edmée Marques inspire me?
Branca Edmée Marques showed and proved that women could also play an important role in science at the time and fought for women’s rights in higher education, when they could not study abroad without their husband’s permission. She was the first woman to obtain a Chair in Chemistry at a Portuguese university.
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