Jeanne Egbertine van Amstel

Globetrotter and enterprising chemist

Jeanne van Amstel, born on Java in 1888, arrived in the Netherlands when she was about ten. In 1910 she obtained her engineering diploma in Chemical Technology in Delft. Two years later she was the first female researcher to obtain her doctorate, she did so cum laude.

She was a member of the Royal Botanical Society in the Netherlands and worked at various laboratories in Delft. After a period at the Colonial Institute, Van Amstel left for Surinam in 1918. At the Agricultural Research Station in Paramaribo she carried out various studies into the possibilities of improving agricultural production in Surinam. In 1919, she founded a study circle in Paramaribo. The study circle provided accessible courses on scientific subjects: Van Amstel herself took care of the course on chemistry. She published several research articles, and a book on Surinamese clay soils.

In 1924 she emigrated to the United States to work as a chemist at the Bacteriological Department of the State Department of Health in New York. Van Amstel died in 1929.