Cécile Butticaz

Cécile Butticaz (2 July 1884, in Geneva – 1 June 1966, in Geneva), also known as Cécile Biéler or Cécile Biéler-Butticaz, was a Swiss engineer. She is considered the first female electrical engineer in Europe, because she earned her engineering diploma in 1907.

Early life Butticaz was born in 1884, in Geneva, the daughter of Constant Butticaz and Eugénie Mercanton Butticaz. Her father was a factory director. She earned a diploma in electrical engineering in 1907, the first woman to do so in Europe. She earned a doctorate in physics from the University of Geneva, in 1929, after conducting original research on invar, a nickel-iron alloy with industrial applications.

Career Butticaz worked as an engineer in Geneva after she gained her diploma. She also taught mathematics in Geneva and Lausanne. She also wrote on social matters, in Foyer moderne (1935).

Butticaz is sometimes described as the first woman engineer in Europe, but there are several women with claims to that "first". Among earlier contenders, Rita de Morais Sarmento earned an engineering degree in Portugal in 1896, and Alice Perry earned her engineering degree in Ireland in 1905.

Personal life and legacy Butticaz was a Soroptimist, active in founding the Lausanne chapter of the club. a street in Geneva was proposed for a rename as "Rue Cécile-Biéler-Butticaz", after the city's notable native engineer.