In the eighteenth century, Laura Bassi (1711-78) was one of the most well-known physics professors, and the only woman to occupy this position in the century of Newton. This seminar will discuss Bassi’s life and work in the university, her home laboratory, and the Bologna Academy of Sciences. How did she become the first woman to have a paid scientific career within the institutions of her time? What did it mean to be a woman of science in the eighteenth century?