Isabel Gago

After graduation, Gago remained working at IST until her retirement, in 1984, at the age of 70. She became the first female teacher of her subject in Portugal, giving theoretical and practical classes in general chemistry and in the field of electrochemistry and electrometallurgy, although her lack of an advanced degree meant that she was never allowed to call herself a teacher and was always a "First assistant". In her career Gago faced significant problems as neither Portuguese society nor her co-workers accepted women who wished to carry out professional activities, particularly in the exclusive male world of engineering. In the 1940s she constructed a Portable Analysis Laboratory (Laboratório de Análises Portátil) for use in the field, in a wooden suitcase which could double as a work table so that the analyses could be done resting on the operator's knees.^[4] In the 1960s, she was part of the academic team that developed the laboratory at the University of Lourenço Marques in Mozambique.^[1][2][3][5]

In 2011, in celebration of the centenary of the Instituto Superior Técnico, she was honoured, along with Maria Amélia Chaves (first woman to graduate in civil engineering, from the same Institute) and Sílvia Brito Costa (first female professor of engineering).^[1][5]

Isabel Gago died on 8 May 2012.^[5]