Lidija Liepiņa

Lidija Liepiņa (, ; 4 April 1891 – 4 September 1985) was a Latvian physical chemist, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, professor, and one of the first women to receive a doctorate in chemistry in the USSR.

Her research interests spanned several areas of physical and colloidal chemistry. Most of the works are devoted to the study of the mechanism of processes occurring at the interface between a solid and the environment. She was engaged in study of adsorption, various surface phenomena, corrosion processes, and formation of hydrides.

She received many awards for her research contributions including induction into the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labour, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and The Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945".

Biography Lidija Liepiņa was born on 4 April (March 22 O.S.) 1891, in Saint Petersburg, Russia to a Latvian father, Karl Ivanovich Lepin (Kārlis Liepiņš) (1864–1942), and a Russian mother, Ekaterina Alekseevna Shelkovskaya (1867-1956). Karl Lepin graduated from the Forestry Institute in St. Petersburg and worked in the forests of Governorate of Livonia and then in Novgorod provinces. Lately, he managed the estates of Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn. Lidija spend her childhood in Bolshiye Vyazyomy-an urban-type settlement in Moscow Oblast, Russia, where today the museum of Alexander Pushkin is located. For summertime, her father sent her to his relatives to Latvia. In accordance with the rules imposed by the Ministry of Public Education at that time, unmarried girls had to submit the permission of their fathers to enter the courses. Lidija was very lucky because her father had nothing against her education, while many girls of her age had to argue with their families, who did not understand their desire to continue education.

For some unknown reasons, Lidija missed the 1914 school year and returned to her study in September 1915.

On September 29, 1917, Lidija Lepina graduated from the Moscow Higher Courses for Women with a first-degree diploma. Her thesis was devoted to the catalytic breakdown of fats with sulfonaphthenic acids. Although Sergey Namyotkin was listed as the head of this work, in fact it was directed by Nikolay Shilov. where she became head of the colloid chemistry department. In 1934, she was awarded the title of professor as the first woman to be awarded a professorship, and in 1937, she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Sciences without defending a thesis from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. It was one of the country's first doctoral degrees in chemistry awarded to a woman. In 1938, she worked in the field of colloidal chemistry and studied the surface phenomena. For all her work during the Great Patriotic War, she was awarded the Medal For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War.

Her research on corrosion began around the same time. According to Lydia's student Janis Stradins, "this was caused by the solution of practical problems in the protection of aircraft from corrosion, the search for effective inhibitors. Thus, the solution of the defense problem and for the second time in her life it led Lidija Liepiņa to a new direction: after the end of the war she was destined to become the founder of the school of corrosionists in Riga".

By the early 1950s, Lidija had published over 60 scientific papers, She found out how colloidal-chemical factors affect the inhibition of metal corrosion processes and established kinetic patterns during the oxidation of metals in solutions.

Her research team at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR developed recommendations on the protection of metal structures from corrosion, which were used in the construction of the Pļaviņas and Riga Hydroelectric Power Plants. Before painting the metal, rust converters were used instead of mechanical cleaning of rust. These studies were awarded the State Prize of the Latvian SSR in 1970.

Studies of Reactions of Metals with Water A significant part of Liepiņa 's works is about the mechanism of reactions between metals and water. In the course of her research, the hydride theory (1955-1959) was formulated, which subsequently received further development. According to this theory, in the first stage of the reaction between the metal and water, unstable metal hydrides are formed, which later transform into hydroxides.

Selected works Liepiņa published in both the USSR and in Latvia. Throughout the 1950s, she had many articles published in the Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Some of her works are:

Awards and titles

The title of Hero of Socialist Labour, with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal (1965). The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1960). Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War." State Prize of the Latvian SSR for research in the field of corrosion (1970). Diploma of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education (1971). Certificate of honor "For the merits and development of chromatography for the benefit of mankind" of the Scientific Council of Chromatography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Prizes of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR (1967, 1972, 1973, 1979).