Gabriela Chaborski

Gabriela Chaborski (also spelled Chaborschi; 14 October 1891 – 25 November 1936) was a Romanian chemist and university lecturer. She worked at the University of Bucharest, where she taught general chemistry, electrochemistry and quantitative analysis. Her scientific work included methods in inorganic and analytical chemistry, studies of molecular association, and doctoral research on yeasts carried out at the University of Geneva. She was the first woman vice-president of the Romanian Society of Chemistry.

Early life and education Chaborski was born on 14 October 1891 in Bârlad, in the Kingdom of Romania. She was of Polish and German family origin: her father, Ludovic Chaborski, had emigrated from Poland in 1868, settled first in Bârlad and later in Ploiești, and married Emilia Schnell, who was of German origin.

She completed secondary school in Ploiești in 1911, then studied physical and chemical sciences at the University of Bucharest, where she received a competitive scholarship and graduated with a licentiate in 1914. She continued her studies in Switzerland as a Romanian state scholar at the University of Geneva, where she earned a doctorate in physical sciences, specializing in chemistry, with the thesis Recherches sur les levures termophiles et cryophiles. Her doctoral research was conducted in the botanical institute's plant chemistry laboratory under Robert Hippolyte Chodat. She became a titled lecturer from 1 January 1928.

During the 1929–1930 academic year she taught quantitative analysis to second-year students at the Institute of Industrial Chemistry and the Electrotechnical Institute, and supervised laboratory classes twice weekly.

Chaborski was among the earliest women to hold a senior academic position in Romanian higher education. She has been identified as the first woman university lecturer in analytical chemistry at the University of Bucharest and, according to the Romanian newspaper Viața Liberă, the first woman university lecturer in Romania.

Scientific work Chaborski's doctoral work investigated yeasts capable of living under abnormal temperature conditions. According to her 1928 list of titles and works, she isolated new yeasts from figs and bananas, studied them biologically and biochemically, and investigated thermophilic and cryophilic yeasts.

In the early 1920s, Chaborski collaborated with Longinescu on analytical chemistry methods. Their work included tests for hydrochloric acid in the presence of hydrobromic and hydroiodic acids, a method for nitric acid, methods for detecting sodium and potassium by wet analysis, detection of chromium in the presence of manganese, detection of calcium in the presence of barium and strontium, and separation of metals of the third analytical group.

Science communication and publications Chaborski contributed frequently to Natura, a Romanian periodical for the popularization of science. Her articles included a series on atoms and elements and pieces on isotopes, Egyptology, and chemistry in warfare, including translations and notes. She also gave radio university lectures, including Povestea atomilor și elementelor.

In 1926 she published Atomii de azi, a short book on contemporary ideas about atomic structure, in the scientific-current-affairs series edited by Gheorghe Țițeica.

Death Chaborski died in Bucharest on 25 November 1936 from a heart disease attributed by contemporaries to rheumatism contracted in childhood. At the service held at the crematorium chapel on 27 November 1936, addresses were given by Longinescu, Dragomir Hurmuzescu, D. Buttescu, president of the Romanian Society of Chemistry, and Nicolae Iordache on behalf of the assistants in the inorganic chemistry laboratory.

Selected publications