Justicia Espada Acuña turns 128, Google honors Chilean female civil engineer

Happy Birthday Justicia Espada Acuña!!!

Google dedicates a wonderful doodle today to Justicia Espada Acuña, one of the first female engineers in Chile and South America. She was a Chilean civil engineer.

Justicia Espada Acuña was born on January 14, 1893 in Santiago, Chile. She was the daughter of an engineer, José Acuña Latorre. She studied at the Liceo de Aplicación and then at the Instituto Pedagógico. In 1913, she switched her studies from mathematics to civil engineering, and entered the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile, being the only woman among all the students of that faculty.

Justicia Espada Acuña studied mathematics after high school although she had an interest in engineering. In 1912, she became the first woman to join the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Chile, and she made history when she graduated with a degree in civil engineering seven years later.

Justicia Espada Acuña started working as a calculator in the Department of Roads and Works of the Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado in 1920. During the course of her career at Empresa, she left a few times to raise her seven children, but always returned before retiring in 1954.

To honor her legacy, the College of Engineers of Chile inducted Justicia Espada Acuña into its Gallery of Illustrious Engineers in 1981, and around a decade later the Institute of Engineers created an award in her name for outstanding female engineers. In addition, in 2018 the Faculty of Physical Science and Mathematics of the University of Chile renamed its central tower after Acuña to memorialize the faculty's first female student.

Justicia Espada Acuña died in July 1980. Google honors her on her 128^th birthday and shows gratitude with a beautiful doodle for helping engineer a brighter future for women in science.

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