Paving the way for women engineers. The story of the first AGH University woman graduate

This year marks the 90th anniversary of Marta Suchanek's graduation, a milestone in the history of AGH University, since she was the first woman to graduate from AGH University (then: Mining Academy).

In the 1920s, the presence of women in technical fields of study was still a topic of controversy. To pave the way for women at the Mining Academy was Janina Gibała who participated in lectures as an academic auditor. After some time, she submitted an application to be enrolled as one of regular students.

Unfortunately, her application could not be taken into account, as in accordance with the existing admission rules, in the event of vacancies arising, priority would be given to those who had taken the entrance examination and achieved positive results. At that time, these were exclusively men. However, the submission of an application itself sparked a discussion about the possibility of women studying at the Mining Academy. It was agreed that women should be allowed to study at the Faculty of Metallurgy, but the right of women to study at the Faculty of Mining raised some controversies. Although the educational law did not provide for any differences between the sexes, the mining law prohibited women from working underground. Nevertheless, the University authorities have decided to admit women as regular students to both faculties. Therefore, starting 1 October 1922, a certain part of places at both faculties were to be reserved for women.

Marta Suchanek (later: Suchanek-Kłyszewska) took advantage of that opportunity and began mining studies in 1927. At University, she developed an interest in mining surveying and chose it as the topic of her diploma thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Oskar Nowotny. She passed her diploma exam on 20 June 1936, and three days later she obtained her degree, thus becoming the first woman to graduate from the Mining Academy and the first woman in Poland to obtain the degree of magister inżynier (EN: Master of Science in Engineering) in mining.

After graduating, she worked in her trained profession as a surveyor at the "Walenty-Wawel" coal mine in Ruda Śląska. Following her move to Warsaw, she worked as a typist in the construction department of the Main Post Office from February 1940 to August 1944. Later, she worked as an engineer and held information and research roles in construction-focused entities.

During her career, she proactively worked for the exchange of information between scientific and technical information centres in Poland and abroad, which was facilitated by her fluent command of three foreign languages: German, French, and English. For many years, she collaborated with national construction institutions. She was also an editor of an engineering and construction magazine.

Her tremendous commitment and contribution to working for the common good have been recognised and rewarded with numerous awards, such as the Gold Cross of Merit, the Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland, and the AGH University Honorary Badge for merits for the university's development.

She was also awarded the Cross of the Home Army and the Order of Polonia Restituta for her contributions to the underground movement during World War II. She was a member of the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ) and the Home Army (AK). She was involved in underground publishing activities and her skills made her an effective liaison officer.

Marta Suchanek-Kłyszewska passed away on 10 April 2008. The path she followed as the first woman graduate of AGH University is setting the tone for thousands of women at not two but 18 faculties. Each of them sees women gaining knowledge, conducting research, and developing innovative technologies shaping our future.

Today, successive generations of female scientists at AGH University are following in Marta Suchanek-Kłyszewska's footsteps, conducting research on modern materials, technologies in medicine, life support systems in space, and the exploration of elementary particles at CERN.

See selected projects and studies by AGH University women scientists.

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