Google doodle pays tribute to Romanian physicist Stefania Maracineanu on her 140th birth anniversary

The Google doodle on June 18 paid tribute to Romanian physicist Stefania Maracineanu on her 140th birth anniversary.

The Google doodle on June 18 honoured Stefania Maracineanu, a Romanian physicist, on her 140th birth anniversary. She was one of the pioneering women in the discovery and research of radioactivity.

According to Google, Stefania Maracineanu graduated with a physical and chemical science degree in 1910 and started her career as a teacher at the Central School for Girls in Bucharest. She earned a scholarship from the Romanian Ministry of Science while being there. Moreover, she decided to pursue graduate research at the Radium Institute in Paris.

As per a blog on Google, The Radium Institute was quickly becoming a worldwide centre for the study of radioactivity under the direction of physicist Marie Curie. Stefania began working on her PhD thesis on polonium, an element that Curie discovered.

Today’s #GoogleDoodle celebrates tefania Mrcineanu’s 140th birthday. The Romanian physicist was one of the pioneering women in the discovery of artificial radioactivity.Learn more about her inspiring story here —> https://t.co/j3aE1v5pGf pic.twitter.com/MZ72AXhSM9

During her research on the half-life of polonium, Maracineanu noticed that the half-life seemed dependent on the type of metal it was placed on. This in turn got her wondering if the alpha rays from the polonium had transferred some atoms of the metal into radioactive isotopes. Notably, her research led to what is most likely the first example of artificial radioactivity. She even enrolled at Sorbonne University in Paris to finish her PhD in physics, which she earned in just two years!