LATVIAN PHYSICIST Elza Krauliņa

Elza Krauliņa (1920 – 2002) was a Latvian scientist, the first physicist in Latvia to defend her doctoral dissertation in physics, the first female doctor of optics in the Baltic States, and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, initiator, and head of the Laboratory of Spectroscopy Problems.

From early childhood, Elza was interested in science. At school, she was interested in math, chemistry, physics, as well as poetry, and literature. She entered the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Latvia in 1939 to study physics, but in June 1941 the war stopped her studies. During World War II she worked in the editorial office of newspapers as the executive secretary. She graduated from the University of Latvia in 1947. From 1949 to 1952 she studied postgraduate studies at the St. Petersburg State University, where in 1954 she defended her dissertation on the role of the second type of collisions in the fluorescence of mercury and sodium vapour.

After returning to Latvia, Elza continued her research in spectroscopy. In her dissertation, she studied the spectral lines of sodium, which were in the visible part of the spectrum. The idea was also to study areas of the ultraviolet spectrum. She organized the Laboratory of Spectroscopy Problems at the University of Latvia. In 1971, she managed a large contract with the Latvian Ministry of Health for the construction of a scanning spectrophotometer to study the cells.

In 1978, she actively participated in the organization of an international conference on nuclear physics in Riga. In 1979, she resigned from the position of the head of the laboratory and continued to work as a scientific consultant. For more than 30 years, Elza Krauliņa chaired the Scientific Council of Spectroscopy (since 1958) at the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Once a month, lectures were organized for factory laboratory staff on the latest developments in spectral analysis in 32 factories of the Republic.

Professor E. Krauliņa is the author of more than 100 scientific publications, and was the editor of 15 collections of scientific articles. She participated with reports in many international conferences, earned true respect and authority at the university, and was well known in the society of foreign physicists.