It ’s no secret that for century , women have front innumerable obstacle pursuing careers in the fields of science , applied science , applied science and mathematics , otherwise known as STEM . Many have faced challenge related not only to their sex , but also to their backwash , heritage , religion and more . And a few , like physicist Hedwig Kohn , have been give the opportunities and embodied enough resilience to triumph over those disadvantage .
Born on April 5 , 1887 , in Breslau , Germany ( now Wrocław , Poland ) , Kohn paved a unique course for herself early on , auditing at a local university at the age of 20 — a year before women were even leave to formally enroll . In 1913 , she make a doctorate inphysicsand go on to becomeone of just three womencertified to learn the case at a German university before World War II .
But in 1933 , the risingNazipowers forced Kohn and her fellow Jewish colleague Lise Meitner and Hertha Sponerout of their business . Kohn was capable to support herself through research work for the next two years , and in 1935 , she was able to take on a three - calendar month undertaking in the Licht - Kosmetisches Observatorium in Arosa , Switzerland . But the curt - terminal figure try did n’t pan out into a permanent escapism from the atrocities come throughout Eastern Europe .
In November 1938 , a two - day terror strike known asKristallnacht , or the " Night of Broken Glass " took place . Nazis in Germany murdered nearly 100 Jews , check 30,000 men and sent them to concentration camps , and destroyed Jewish homes and businesses . Kohn knew she had to get out — but how ? She lacked the global plaudits that might warrant an international work visa , and most American university jobs required occupation applicant to have recent teaching experience , a reservation Kohn lack due to the Nazi - imposed ban .
In the same month of Kristallnacht , a Princeton University physicist named Rudolf Ladenburgbegan pushing for Kohn ’s immigration . Ladenburg had aim Kohn ’s research in Breslau and had made a name for himself at Princeton . With the aid of his initial pressure , the International Federation of University Women ( IFUW ) and the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning ( SPSL ) in London created a university military position for Kohn in 1939 . But just before she could flee , World War II officially go against out , and England revoked all visas for " enemy alien . "
Refusing to give up hope , Kohn , Ladenburg and representatives from several international organizations exchange more than 70 letters with institutions , eventually securing Kohn job provide at three U.S. school . She was yield a visa to the U.S. via Sweden — just before her only brother was expatriate and killed by the Nazis .
Kohn finally made it from Stockholm to Greensboro , North Carolina in 1940 . She went on to drop nearly two decennary instruct physical science at both the Woman ’s College of the University of North Carolina and Wellesley College in Massachusetts . Though she retired in 1952 , Kohn was n’t quite quick to call it quits on her career . She took on a inquiry posture at Duke University , studying flame spectrographic analysis , and according to theThe Encyclopedia of Jewish Women , she " experience a renaissance in the 1960s in the framework of combustion skill and plasma natural philosophy . "
By the time of her death in 1964 , Kohn had produced numerous scientific publication , write several book chapters , secured a letters patent , and made a live shock as an innovator within the STEM humans and beyond .
