Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova (born Vorontsova) (1743-1810) was one of the first women in Europe to hold governmental office. In 1783 she was appointed director of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the same year founded and became president of the Russian Academy. Because of her education, travel abroad and writings she became a leading figure in the introduction of eighteenth-century Russian culture to the West, while passing on French enlightenment to Russia.