Fatima Butaeva, inventor of fluorescent lamps 

 

Born in a small town in Ossetia, where few could even write, Fatima Aslanbekovna Butaeva (1907-1992) started her career as a teacher of mathematics in Kuybyshev immediately after graduating from the Second Moscow State University in 1932. Fatima returned to Moscow in the same year and spent two years teaching theoretical mechanics at the Technical School of the Metrostroy Training Centre. In 1934, she went to work at the light source laboratory of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI), first as an engineer and subsequently as head of department. 

As a result of her research, Fatima became famous as the co-inventor of the first fluorescent lamps, for which she was awarded the Stalin Prize, Second Degree, in 1951. In the same year, Butaeva and her colleagues applied for a patent for a new principle for light amplification, which is today applied in all lasers. The discovery was ahead of its time and the patent was only granted eight years later, when it was eventually entered in the USSR State Register of Scientific Discoveries. 

If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. 

https://www.rbth.com/history/330424-female-scientists