Breaking the glass ceiling: Maria Lluïsa Canut between Spanish and American Physics

Maria Lluïsa Canut (1924-2005) was a prominent Spanish physicist, specialized in crystallography. In 1955 she finished her PhD at the University of Barcelona under the advisory of the Spanish crystallographer José Luís Amorós (1920-2001), whom she married later. Both conducted research in Barcelona, at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid and at the School of Engineering and Technology of the Southern Illinois University. Moreover, Canut played a major role in the feminist struggles for equal salaries between women and men at American universities in the 1970s. I will analyze her scientific contributions, her engagement in feminist struggles and the dynamics of Canut and Amorós as a scientific couple.