Background
Saruhashi was born in Tokyo and graduated from the Imperial Women"s College of Science (predecessor of Toho University) in 1943.
猿橋 勝子
Saruhashi was born in Tokyo and graduated from the Imperial Women"s College of Science (predecessor of Toho University) in 1943.
Then she joined the Meteorological Research Institute which belonged to the Central Meteorological Observatory (later Japan Meteorological Agency), and worked in its Geochemical Laboratory with Yasuo Miyake who became her mentor. In 1950, she started studying Carbon dioxide levels in seawater, on the recommendation of Miyake. At that time, Carbon dioxide levels were not recognized as important and Saruhashi had to develop her own methods for measuring them.
She earned her doctorate in chemistry in 1957 from the University of Tokyo, becoming the first woman to do southern
After the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests in 1954, the Japanese government asked the Geochemical Laboratory to analyze and monitor radioactivity in the seawater and in rainfall. A Japanese fishing trawler had been downwind from the tests at the time they occurred, and its occupants became ill from the effects.
Saruhashi found that it took a year and a half for the radioactivity to reach Japan in the seawater. By 1964, the radioactivity levels showed that the western and eastern North Pacific ocean water had mixed completely, and by 1969, the traces of radioactivity had spread throughout the Pacific.
This was some of the first research showing how the effects of fallout can spread across the entire world, and not just affect the immediate area.
Later, in the 1970s and 80s, she turned her attention to studying acid rain and its effects. Saruhashi died September 29, 2007 of pneumonia at her home in Tokyo. She was 87. 1958 - established the Society of Japanese Women Scientists to promote women in the sciences and contribute to world peace.
"There are many women who have the ability to become great scientists.
I would like to see the day when women can contribute to science and technology on an equal footing with mentor".
Saruhashi was an honorary member of the Geochemical Society of Japan and the Oceanographical Society of Japan.