Leading Ladies
Five Things to Know About Laura Bassi
1. She was the first woman to earn a doctorate in science which was impressive since it was during the height of The Age of the Enlightenment in eighteenth century Italy.
2. Bassi was the first salaried female professor at the University of Bologna.
3. She and her husband conducted daring experiments, most notably the then, exciting discovery of electricity.
4. She became the most important scientist at the time to apply Newtonian mechanics in Italy.
5. Only a limited number of her scientific works survive, but her scientific impact is evident through her many correspondents including Voltaire, Ceare Beccaria, Francesco Algarotti, Charles Bonet and Lazzaro Spallanzani.
