Stefania Merazinanu: Internet giant Google celebrates Romanian physicist Stefania Merazinanu’s 140th birthday with a doodle. Merasinianu was one of the pioneers in the discovery and research of radiation.
Stefania Merasina was born on June 18, 1882, in Bucharest, Romania. He graduated in 1910 with a degree in Physics and Chemistry. She began her career as a teacher at Middle School for Girls in Bucharest. While there, she received a grant from the Roman Ministry of Science. She decided to pursue research at the Radium Institute in Paris.
At the time, physicist Marie Curie’s Radium Company was becoming a global center for radiological research. Merasinanu began work oPh.D.is Ph.D. dissertation on polonium, an element discovered by Curie.
During her research on the half-life of polonium, Merasinanu noticed that the half-life seemed to depend on the type of metal on which it was placed. It was surprising that alpha rays from polonium converted some atoms of the metal into radioactive isotopes. Her research set the first example of artificial radiation.
Maracinanu joined Sorbonne University in Paris to complete his Ph.D. in physics and received her doctorate in just two years! After working for four years at the Astronomical Laboratory in Meudon, he returned to Romania. Established his first laboratory for radiology.
There Maracinanu devoted his time to exploring artificial rainfall. In it, he made a trip to Algeria to test his results. He studied the relationship between earthquakes and rainfall and noted a significant increase in radiation at the center of the earth leading to earthquakes.
In 1935, Marie Curie’s daughter, Irene Curie, and her husband were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of artificial radiation. Merasinanu did not compete for the Nobel Prize but asked that his contribution to the invention be recognized. In 1936 Merasinenu’s work was recognized by the Academy of Sciences of Romania. There he was selected to serve as Director of Research. But he did not receive universal recognition for his invention.
