Vera Yevstafievna Popova, née Vera Bogdanovskaya (Russian: Вера Евстафьевна Попова; 17 September 1867 – 8 May 1896) was a Russian chemist. She was one of the first female chemists in Russia, and the first Russian female author of a chemistry textbook.
She "probably became the first woman to die in the cause of chemistry" as a result of an explosion in her laboratory.
Early life and education
Vera Bogdanovskaya was born in 1867 in Saint Petersburg. Her father, Evstafy Ivanovich Bogdanovsky, was a professor of surgery. Her parents arranged for their three children to be educated at home. In 1878, she began studying at the Smolny Institute at the age of 11. Starting in 1883 she spent four years at the Bestuzhev Courses and after this she worked for two years in laboratories at the Academy of Sciences and the Military Surgical Academy. In 1889 Bogdanovskaya left Russia for Switzerland, where she undertook a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Geneva. She defended her research into dibenzyl ketone in 1892. Bogdanovskaya wanted...