chemistry

Gertrudis de la Fuente

Gertrudis de la Fuente is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gertrudis de la Fuente rather than just read about it. In short: Gertrudis de la Fuente Sánchez (21 August 1921 – 23 January 2017) was a Spanish biochemist who specialised in enzymology. She was a professor in the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid.

Key takeaways

Gertrudis de la Fuente belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gertrudis de la Fuente to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gertrudis de la Fuente from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gertrudis de la Fuente Sánchez (21 August 1921 – 23 January 2017) was a Spanish biochemist who specialised in enzymology. She was a professor in the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid. She coordinated the Spanish government's commission to protect against the 1981 toxic oil syndrome. Her life and scientific career was partially chronicled in the short film, Gertrudis (la mujer que no enterró sus talentos), which was released in 2016.

Early life and education Gertrudis de la Fuente Sánchez was born in Madrid, Spain on 21 August 1921, the daughter of a train driver. She moved to Arroyo de Malpartida, Cáceres aged six for her father's work. She grew up in a rural area, where girls were not usually educated beyond primary school, and did not start high school until her father retired. In 1935 she moved to Madrid, where she began to study for her baccalaureate, but was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. She studied geometry, eventually graduating in 1942. She completed a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1948. At university she also attended physics classes. She began her research career working for free in the pharmacy faculty with biochemist Santos Ruiz the only professor of biochemistry in Spain. In 1950 she secured a grant to write her doctoral thesis, which she defended in 1954.

Career In 1956, she was appointed as a collaborator in the Spanish National Research Council, was promoted to researcher in 1960, and to professor in 1962. In 1970 the Institute of Enzymology relocated to the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. In 1981 she was commissioned the Spanish government to coordinate an investigation into toxic oil syndrome.

Toxic Oil Syndrome During the 1981 toxic oil syndrome there was a mass poisoning in Spain. Researchers identified that the poisoning was due to industrial rapeseed oil ending up in the market for humans. The syndrome lasted forty days and affected more than 20,000 people, leaving more than 1,100 dead. She was part of the Advisory Commission for Scientific and Technical Research (Comisión Asesora de Investigación Científica y Técnica).

Death and legacy She carried on teaching and supervising PhD students until her retirement. In 2015, a film was made about her life, education and work. She won the Club of 25 Award for her contributions to science. She died in 2017, and was remembered as being "active and serene" and "steadfast in equality – for women and in general" by María Jesús Santesmases.

See also List of Spanish inventors and discoverers

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gertrudis de la Fuente

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gertrudis de la Fuente claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gertrudis de la Fuente before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gertrudis de la Fuente ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gertrudis de la Fuente

In research: Gertrudis de la Fuente appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gertrudis de la Fuente in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gertrudis de la Fuente is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2017 deaths, 20th-century Spanish chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gertrudis de la Fuente outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Gertrudis de la Fuente” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Gertrudis de la Fuente in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gertrudis de la Fuente means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gertrudis de la Fuente out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gertrudis de la Fuente in simple terms?

Gertrudis de la Fuente Sánchez (21 August 1921 – 23 January 2017) was a Spanish biochemist who specialised in enzymology. She was a professor in the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid.

Why does Gertrudis de la Fuente matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gertrudis de la Fuente?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gertrudis de la Fuente.