# Erna Hamburger

Erna Hamburger (14 September 1911 – 15 May 1988) was a Swiss engineer and professor. In 1957, she became professor of electrometry at the University of Lausanne. She was the first woman in the history of Switzerland to be named a professor at a STEM university.

## Early life and education

Hamburger was born on 14 September 1911, in Brussels, Belgium to Frederick and Else Müller. She went to secondary school in Kissingen, Bavaria. She first started secondary school at an all-girls' school, and then moved on to be the only girl in her engineering classes. In 1933, Hamburger received an engineering-electrician diploma from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Hamburger also received a doctorate in technical sciences from the same school in 1936.

## Career

In 1942, Hamburger was employed as an electrical engineer at Paillard SA in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland. Before becoming a professor at the University of Lausanne, Hamburger was the head of work at the electrotechnical laboratory at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
In 1957, Hamburger was appointed as the first woman in the history of Switzerland to be named professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. When this occurred, the president of the school, Maurice Cosandey, announced, "It is both a brilliant consecration and a measure of the backwardness that characterizes our country as regards the promotion of women."
Other positions Hamburger held include president of the Swiss Association of Women in Liberal and Commercial Careers, president of the Association of University Women of Vaud, and vice president of the International Federation of University Women.
One of her major innovations was the creation of an apparatus for radio-wave reception. This research included topics such as a system of optical registration from tone frequencies and ultra-short waves.
Hamburger joined the Swiss military in 1939 and was promoted to chief of the telecommunication troops in 1950.

## Legacy

Hamburger was an advocate for higher education. Shortly after her death, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Women in Science and Humanities Foundation was created. The primary goal of this foundation is to promote and support women in higher education. Every year, the Erna Hamburger Prize is awarded to "the most influential woman in science" that year.
Laureates of the Erna Hamburger Prize :
| Year | Laureate | Impact in STEM |
| 2006 | Julia Higgins | Chemical engineer |
| 2007 | Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard | Biologist and Nobel Prize winner |
| 2008 | Frances E. Allen | Computer scientist and IBM Fellow Emerita |
| 2009 | Kazuyo Sejima | Architect and Pritzker Prize winner |
| 2010 | Lisa Randall | Physicist |
| 2011 | Ada Yonath | Biologist and Nobel Prize winner |
| 2012 | Felicitas Pauss | Physicist at ETH Zurich |
| 2013 | Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge | British engineer |
| 2014 | Esther Duflo | Economist |
| 2015 | Jill Farrant | Phytologist |
| 2016 | May-Britt Moser | Psychologist and Neuroscientist, winner of 2014 Nobel Prize |
| 2017 | Mary O'Kane | Australian scientist and engineer |
| 2018 | Jennifer Widom | Electrical engineering and computing |
| 2019 | Antje Boetius | Marine Biologist and Geomicrobiology Professor |
| 2020 | Michal Lipson | Physicist, in silicon photonics |
| 2021 | Sarah Gilbert | Vacinologist |
| 2022 | Anne Lacaton | Architect and educator |
| 2023 | Michelle Simmons | Quantum physicist |