In 1872, Catalan classrooms began to admit women with a strong desire to study medicine despite their difficulties in having access to education.  Aleu i Riera was a pioneer and became the first woman to graduate in medicine and surgery in Spain and also the first to receive a PhD.

Doctor, nephrologist. He was a member of the science section of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans from 1961. In 1927 he got his degree in medicine in Barcelona and from 1934 to 1939 he was a helper teacher of pathology at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.