Elisa Bachofen

Elisa Beatriz Bachofen was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1891. She graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 1918. Her thesis was on the manufacturing of cotton yarns and fabrics.^[2] It has since been digitised.^[3] She was the secretary for and wrote articles in the UBA student magazine Revista Del Centro Estudiantes de Ingenieria.^[4][5]

She was lead author on Usina hidroeléctrica de Luján de Cuyo : memoria descriptiva de la misma about the Luján de Cuyo hydroelectric plant.^[6][7]

Her career spanned the first half of the twentieth century. From 1919 to 1953, when she retired, she worked for the Dirección de Puentes y Caminos as a bridge designer, and later for the Dirección Nacional de Vialidad overseeing the development and direction of road works.^[8]

She chaired the Technical Commission of the Circle of Inventors founded in 1922, and the Argentine Association of Scientific and Technical Libraries. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Business and Professional Women.

Along with her academic achievements she was also active in the National Feminist Union, together with activists such as Alicia Moreau de Justo and Julieta Lanteri.^[1]

In 1955 she had to leave Argentina after the Revolución Libertadora in September, which ended the Peronist regime, continuing with her research and projects in the United States.^[9]

She travelled to Europe, the United States, Israel and Brazil.

Her sister Esther Bachofen (1895–1943) followed in her footsteps and became the fourth female civil engineer in Argentina, qualifying in 1922.^[10]

She died in Buenos Aires on the 19th of November 1976.