Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (10 November 1887 – 25 November 1973) was a Romanian engineer who was one of the first women to obtain a degree in engineering. She was born in the Romanian town of Galați but qualified in Berlin. During World War I she managed a hospital in Romania.

Elisa Zamfirescu was born in Galați, Romania, on 10 November 1887. Her father, Atanase Leonida, was a career officer while her mother, Matilda Gill, was the daughter of a French-born engineer. She was one of 11 children; among her siblings were Dimitrie Leonida, also an engineer, and Gheorghe Leonida, a sculptor.

Due to prejudices against women in the sciences, Zamfirescu was rejected by the School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest. In 1909 she was accepted at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin). She graduated in 1912, with a degree in engineering. It has been claimed that Zamfirescu was the world's first female engineer, but Englishwoman Nina Cameron Graham also gained a degree in civil engineering in 1912, from the University of Liverpool and the Irish engineer Alice Perry graduated six years before either of them, in 1906.

Returning to Romania, Zamfirescu worked as an assistant at the Geological Institute of Romania. During World War I, she joined the Red Cross and ran a hospital at Mărășești. In 1917 her hospital received the wounded from the Battle of Mărășești between the German and the Romanian armies. It was a victory by Romania over 28 days during which there were over 12,000 Romanian and over 10,000 of the invaders who were wounded.

Around this time, she met and married chemist Constantin Zamfirescu, brother of the politician and writer Duiliu Zamfirescu.

After the war, Zamfirescu returned to the Geological Institute. She led several geology laboratories and participated in various field studies, including some that identified new resources of coal, shale, natural gas, chromium, bauxite and copper. Zamfirescu also taught physics and chemistry.

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu emerged as a respected leader in wartime medical services. Although not a physician, she used her skills in organization and determination to support the doctors and nurses under her charge. Her leadership responsibilities at Mărășești included managing a staff of military doctors, surgeons, nurses (many of them volunteers like herself), and orderlies. She organized rotas for surgeries and nursing shifts to ensure continuous care. Logistically, Zamfirescu coordinated with both the army’s medical corps and the Red Cross headquarters to request needed supplies or evacuations for severe cases.

One of her notable contributions to care was maintaining discipline and morale in the hospital under bombardment. The front at Mărășești was close enough that the thunder of artillery was frequently heard. There were occasions when the field hospital itself was in danger – whether from stray shellfire or air bombardment – yet Zamfirescu is credited with keeping calm and "disregarding danger" in order to tend the wounded. A French observer noted in an official report that she showed “good qualities of abnegation and disregard for danger” during the most perilous moments. This praise referred to her conduct amid a typhus epidemic, illustrating how she personally took on risky tasks. In one instance, Zamfirescu nursed a French officer who had contracted typhus in the hospital at Vaslui, another war front location, directly providing him care despite the contagion. This level of hands-on courage was unusual for someone in a managerial position and earned her great respect.