Described as one of the greatest Japanese geochemists and hailed as an "iron scientist", Katsuko Saruhashi would have been 98 years old on March 21.
In her honour, Google is changing its logo in 15 countries to an illustration of her.
But in her lifetime, she was not always recognised for her achievements and discrimination was an everyday affair.
This is her story:
World War II experience
Saruhashi was born in Tokyo in 1920 to Kuniharu and Kuno Saruhashi . As a child, she was often described as a shy and introverted little girl.
. As a child, she was often described as a shy and introverted little girl. A young Saruhashi sat in primary school watching raindrops slide down a window and wondered what made it rain.
Saruhashi had a passion for education that was also supported by her mother after their shared experience of the Second World War. She was convinced that women needed to acquire technical knowledge to gain independence.
She attended Toho University (then known as the Imperial Women's College of Science) and graduated in 1943.
First doctorate
While studying, Saruhashi met someone who would become her future mentor. Miyake Yasuo offered her a position at the Meteorological Research Institute.
During her time there she had the opportunity to study the CO2 levels in seawater.
"Now everyone is concerned about carbon dioxide, but at the time nobody was," she said, when she started she had to design her own techniques for measuring the gas.
She showed that the Pacific Oceans releases about twice as much carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as it absorbs, meaning it could not help combat climate change.
For her work, she became the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1957.
Nuclear bombs
Saruhashi and her team were also recognised for being part of the first group in the world to look into the effects of bombs tested by the US and the Soviet Union in the world's atmosphere.
She discovered that radioactivity reached the cost of Japan. She was one the firsts to research on the issues of nuclear testing; her evidence was later used to stop those governments from performing nuclear tests.
Despite her pioneering work, Saruhashi is almost never cited in Western debates on climate change or the dangers of radiation testing.
She died on September 29, 2007, at the age of 87.
Recognition
Saruhashi was the first woman to be awarded a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1957.
She was the first woman to be elected as the member of the Science Council of Japan, the country’s parliament of science in 1980.
She was the first woman to receive the Miyake Prize for geochemistry in 1985, and she established her own prize as well known as the Suruhashi prize which recognises female scientists who act as mentors and role models for younger female scientists.
"I wanted to highlight the capabilities of women scientists. Until now, those capabilities have been secret, under the surface," she was quoted saying.
In 1993, she won the Tanaka Prize from the Society of Sea Water Sciences.
HARI ini, Google merayakan ulang tahun yang ke-98 untuk geokimiawan asal Jepang, Katsuko Saruhashi karena “konstribusinya dalam bidang sains, dan menginspirasi para ilmuwan muda untuk berhasil.”
Katsuko Saruhashi pernah mengatakan bahwa, “Ada banyak wanita yang memiliki kemampuan untuk menjadi ilmuwan hebat. Saya ingin melihat suatu hari nanti ketika wanita dapat berkonstribusi pada sains dan teknologi dengan posisi yang sejajar dengan pria.”
Saruhashi percaya bahwa “itu adalah tugasnya untuk membuat bidang yang ia kerjakan menjadi lebih sejajar,” dan ia sangat dihormati sebagai pelopor geokimiawan. Berikut ada 5 hal yang perlu Anda ketahui tentang geokimiawan asal Jepang tersebut.
1. Saruhashi yang penasaran dengan hujan dan terinspirasi untuk belajar kimia
Saruhasi adalah seorang ahli geokimiawan yang lahir pada 22 Maret 1920 di Tokyo, Jepang. Ia adalah lulusan dari Toho University di tahun 1943 dan pada tahun 1957, ia mendapatkan program doktor dari University of Tokyo.
Katsuko kecil yang kala itu masih duduk di bangku sekolah dasar melihat tetesan air hujan pada jendela, yang kemudian muncullah rasa penasaran bagaimana hujan dapat terjadi. Dan perjalanannya untuk mendapatkan jawabannya tersebut membuatnya menjadi wanita pertama yang mendapatkan gelar doktor di University of Tokyo pada tahun 1957. Ketertarikannya pada hujan, membuat Katsuko ingin mempelajarinya, terutama mengenai hujan asam.
2. Seorang Geokimiawan yang berbakat dan penamaan “Saruhashi’s Table”
Saruhashi sebagai seorang geokimiawan terkenal karena penelitiannya yang inovatif. Ia merupakan orang pertama yang secara akurat mengukur konsentrasi asam karbonat dalam air berdasarkan suhu, kadar keasaman dan kloniritas.
“Saruhashi’s Table” yang namanya diambil dari geokimiawan tersebut merupakan sebuah metode yang sampai saat ini masih digunakan oleh para ahli kelautan. Selain itu, ia juga mengembangkan sebuah teknik untuk melacak penyebaran radioaktif yang menyebabkan pembatasan percobaan nuklir di laut pada tahun 1963.
3. Karier Saruhashi selama lebih dari 30 tahun
Sepanjang kariernya di bidang sains, Saruhashi menjadi wanita pertama yang dipilih oleh Science Council of Japan pada tahun 1980, dan ia juga menjadi wanita pertama yang menerima Miyake Prize untuk geokimia di tahun 1985.
Untuk mendukung lebih banyak wanita dalam bidang sains, di tahun yang sama, Saruhashi memulai Society of Japanese Women Scientists dengan tujuan agar lebih banyak wanita yang dapat berkonstribusi di bidang sains dan perdamaian dunia.
4. Saruhashi yang peduli dengan ilmuwan wanita
Saruhashi sangat peduli mengenai perjuangan ilmuwan wanita lainnya. Ini menjadi salah satu penanda di kehidupannya; ia mencoba membantu untuk kemajuan wanita lainnya, terutama wanita Jepang dalam bidang sains. Dia berkomitmen untuk menjadi insprirasi bagi para wanita muda lainnya untuk belajar sains dan ia juga membuat Saruhashi Prize di tahun 1981 yang dibuat untuk mengakui para ilmuwan wanita untuk penelitiannya.
Penghargaan Saruhashi tersebut dibentuk pada tahun 1980 oleh The Association for the Bright Future of Women Scientist, yang didirikan oleh Katsuko Saruhashi. Penghargaan ini diberikan setiap tahunnya kepada ilmuwan wanita yang berusia di bawah 50 tahun sebagai pengakuan atas penelitiannya.
5. Saruhashi yang fokus pada penelitiannya mengenai pengujian nuklir
Penelitian yang dilakukan Saruhashi membantu memberikan informasi mengenai perlombaan senjata nuklir. Atas permintaan pemerintah Jepang, penelitian yang diarahkan untuk pengujian nuklir pada tahun 1954, menemukan bahwa dampat dari situs uji bom AS, Pulau Bikini, telah menyebar ke laut Jepang 18 bulan setelah pengujiannya.
Penelitian Saruhashi membantu membujuk Amerika dan Uni Soviet untuk menghentikan uji coba nuklir pada tahun 1963. Saruhashi merupakan geokimiawan Jepang pertama yang mengukur secara tepat karbon dioksida dan bahan radioaktif di laut, yang menjadi salam satu alasan ilmiah untuk membatasi percobaan nuklir di Samudra Pasifik.
Geokimiawan wanita pertama yang juga turut mendorong kesejajaran ilmuwan wanita lainnya inin meninggal di umur 87 tahun, pada tahun 2007 karena pneumonia. (Ines Anggun)***
Google's latest Doodle honours the great Japanese geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007), a pioneer in her field who paved the way for women in science.
Saruhashi was among the first to measure carbon dioxide levels in seawater and raised international awareness about the dangers of radioactive fallout as an atmospheric pollutant.
Here are five things you need to know about this eminent geoscientist.
Google Doodles
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1/88 Katsuko Saruhashi Google Doodle celebrating Katsuko Saruhashi Google
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39/88 Ferdinand Monoyer The famous French ophthalmologist, who invented the eye test, would have celebrated his 181st birthday today Google
40/88 Google Doodle celebrating Giro d'Italia's 100th Anniversary Google Doodle celebrating Giro d'Italia's 100th Anniversary Google
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42/88 Google Doodle celebrating Fazlur Rahman Khan Google Doodle celebrating Fazlur Rahman Khan Google
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49/88 Bessie Coleman Google Doodle honours the first African American woman to get an international pilot licence on her 125th birthday Google
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84/88 George Boole Google marks George Boole's 200th birthday
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87/88 Autumnal Equinox 2015 Google marks the autumnal equinox on 23 September
88/88 International Women's Day 2018 Google marks IWD with a doodle featuring a dozen female artists from 12 different countries
1. Katsuko was inspired by the flight of raindrops
Katsuko's fascination with water began at an early age. As a schoolgirl in Tokyo, she would watch raindrops cascade down the windowpane of her classroom and became fascinated with their molecular behaviour.
She resolved to become a scientist and graduated from the capital's Imperial Women's College of Science in 1943, later becoming the first woman to complete a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Tokyo in 1957.
2. She developed a new method for measuring ocean acidity
Working in the Geochemical Laboratory of the Meterological Research Institute, Saruhashi began studying the CO2 content of seawater, an area previously considered insignificant, so much so that she was forced to develop her own means of measuring it.
Subsequently referred to as "Saruhashi’s Table", the innovations she developed for gauging the concentration of carbonic acid in water has since become a global standard.
3. Saruhashi's research helped secure limits on nuclear testing in the wake of Bikini Atoll
When the US government began carrying out nuclear tests in the Pacific at Bikini Atoll in 1954, Saruhashi's expertise in the chemical makeup of oceans was invaluable.
After the crew of a Japanese trawler fishing downwind from the testing site became mysteriously ill, Tokyo assigned the Geochemical Laboratory to investigate the surrounding seas for nuclear contaminants.
Saruhashi found that radioactive materials were being carried in the seawater and would reach Japan within 18 months and that the entire Pacific would be contaminated by 1969 if tests continued.
Her conclusions were crucial to the US and Soviet Union agreeing to halt aboveground nuclear blasts, a breakthrough accord at the height of the Cold War.
4. She blazed a trail for women in science around the world
Saruhashi's important contributions - and the positive geopolitical consequences of her intervention - saw her become the first woman elected to the Science Council of Japan.
She was also the first woman to win Japan’s Miyake Prize for geochemistry and received many other accolades, including the Avon Special Prize for Women in 1981 - for promoting the peaceful use of nuclear power - and the Tanaka Prize from the Society of Sea Water Sciences in 1993.
5. An award for female scientists is given out every year in her honour
Saruhashi made a point of using her acclaim to help further the careers of other women.
The Saruhashi Prize, inaugurated in 1981, is now awarded annually to outstanding female researchers in Japan.
"There are many women who have the ability to become great scientists", she said.
"I would like to see the day when women can contribute to science and technology on an equal footing with men."
Katsuko Saruhashi, a Japanese geochemist, became one of the leading voices in nuclear disarmament and female empowerment through her work in the late 20th century. She’s being memorialized today (March 22) with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 98th birthday.
Katsuko Saruhashi’s Google doodle. (Google)
Saruhashi, born in Tokyo in 1920, lived through World War II as a young adult. Global events undoubtedly shaped her field of research.
Katsuko Saruhashi’s pioneering work
After graduating from Toho University (formerly the Imperial Women’s College of Science) in 1943, she went on to study carbon dioxide in ocean water at the Meteorological Research Institute. In 1957, she became the first woman in Japan to earn her PhD in chemistry from the University of Tokyo.
Few researchers were interested in studying carbon-dioxide levels in water when Saruhashi embarked on her work, which ended up being instrumental for decades. She penned the formula that would allow scientists to determine the amount of carbonic acid in oceans—now one of the hallmark measures of climate change—by hand. Now, researchers use computers for that task.
Saruhashi also studied the amount of radioactive isotopes of elements in seawater following nuclear- bomb test detonations. Working at the Central Meteorological Observatory, she found that tiny radioactive particles floating in the ocean waters along the coast of Japan resulting from the 67 nuclear explosions the US detonated in the Marshall Islands. “There was a controversy over her argument that the radioactive fallout in seawater was more than what they used to think,” Toshihiro Higuchi, a historian at Georgetown University, told the Verge.
Scientists at the US Atomic Energy Commission quickly became interested in her work, and invited Saruhashi to work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to compare US methods of measuring these radioactive isotopes to those used by the Japanese. It wasn’t entirely a friendly working environment: One of her American male colleagues, Theodore Folsom, told her that there was no need for her to come into the office daily, and that instead she should work out of an isolated wooden hut (pdf, p. 4).
Nevertheless, Saruhashi persisted. Her analyses of radioactive isotopes were essentially identical to Folsom’s, despite her inferior working conditions.
Saruhashi became a beacon for women in science
Saruhashi became an advocate for her fellow female scientists and for world peace. In 1958, she co-founded Society of Japanese Women Scientists, and in 1981 established a prize in her name awarded annually to young Japanese female scientists for their excellence in research and mentorship. In 1980, she became the first woman elected to the Science Council of Japan, and went on to receive the Miyake Prize for geochemistry and the Tanaka Prize from the Society of Sea Water Sciences.
She died in September 2007, and her legacy as a scientist, pacifist, and feminist lives on. “I wanted to highlight the capabilities of women scientists,” she said. “Until now, those capabilities have been secret, under the surface.”
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