María Assumpció Català i Poch (Barcelona, 14 July 1925 – ib. 3 July 2009) was a Spanish professor, mathematician, and astronomer. She taught from 1952 to 1991. She started as an assistant in the Astronomy Section of the Seminar on Mathematics in Barcelona, related to the Spanish National Research Council (in Spanish, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, from this point forward abbreviated to, CSIC). Later, she worked in the Henri Poincaré Institute and she also cooperated in some projects with the special chair of Technology in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. In 1970, she was the first woman to earn a science PhD in the Mathematics Section of the University of Barcelona (UB). Her thesis's name was: Contribución al estudio de la dinámica de los sistemas estelares de simetría cilíndrica (in English, Contribution to the study of the dynamics of stellar systems with cylindrical symmetry). She performed systematic monitorings of sunspots and calculations of orbits and eclipses for more than thirty years. She directed eleven degree theses and seven doctoral theses. In addition, she represented Spain in the Commission 46 on the Education of the Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union for 15 years and she worked as the scientific consultant for the Astronomy section of the Spanish version of National Geographic magazine. She retired in 1984, but she continued contact with the astronomy and university communities, attending events such as the biannual meetings of the Spanish Society of Astronomy.
Biography
Early years Her father, Albert Català, worked in banking, and her mother, Assumpció Poch, was a teacher who stopped working when they got married. Such situation of a woman quitting her job after marrying was typical during that time. Català i Poch was the oldest of five children: four daughters and a son. Due to Català's father's work, the family moved to Montblanc when she was a child. Poch began school there but they quickly returned, so she continued with her primary studies in Escuelas Católicas del Sagrado Corazón and María Inmaculada of Barcelona.
Higher education When the Spanish Civil War ended, she studied Bachillerato, which is the stage of education for people over the age of 16 in Spain, at the high school Instituto Maragall. In 1947 she started studying at the UB. At that time, it was rare for a woman to study, however, her father wanted all his children to have the opportunity for education if they wanted to. In spite of the support of Català's father, it was their uncle, Jaume Poch i Garí, who taught them the interesting facts of the universe. Poch i Garí was a professor of Geography, but he had such a passion for Astronomy that he added it as a subject in the teaching diploma study plan during the post-Spanish-Civil-war era. Poch i Garí carried their nephew and nieces to a mountain and he taught them to search the cardinal points or to figure out the time of day observing the shadow of the branches. When it got dark, he showed them the secrets of the universe, instilling Català his passion for Astronomy. Then, when she was in high school, Poch i Garí gave her astronomical and philosophical problems to solve for practice. At that time at the UB, Astronomy could only be studied in the degree of Mathematics. When Català started, only four more women were studying there, but that number actually decreased. By the time she began in the third course, she ended up as the only woman in the faculty. In 1953 she obtained the degree and continued studying to earn the PHD. Following in the family tradition, and also because of the precarious economic situation of the post-Spanish-Civil-war era, she sat for the public official exam to qualify for secondary school teaching in Mathematics. She taught from 1963 until 1975 in the high school Instituto Infanta Isabel of Barcelona. In 1971 she passed her doctoral thesis, which made her the first woman with a Ph.D. in Mathematics in the UB, and she started working as professor in the Department of Astronomy of the UB.
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