Sechi Katō (1893–1989) was a chemist who became the first woman to be a principal investigator at RIKEN, Japan's national Institute of Chemical and Physical Research. Katō was the first female student at Hokkaido University, and the third woman Doctor of Science in Japan. She developed spectrometric analysis of organic materials in Japan. Katō faced personal adversity as well as gender barriers. When she was a baby, her mother and two of her siblings were killed when their house caught fire after collapsing in an earthquake. Her father died a few years later at the age of 43. Katō married young and had two children, one of whom died in battle in World War II. She lived to the age of 95.
Source: “Sechi Katō”, English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), excerpt