She was born in Iași, in the Moldavia region of Romania; her parents were Constantin and Smaranda Ripan, both originally from Huși.

[1][2] After obtaining in 1930 her Habilitation and the title of Docent, Ripan became an associate professor of analytic chemistry at the Faculty of Science of the University of Cluj.

During World War II, when Cluj passed under Hungarian administration under the terms of the Second Vienna Award, the university moved to Timișoara.

She discovered and studied new classes of complex combinations used in the determination of metals, as well as new methods of assay for thallium, lead, tellurium, selenic acid, and selenocyanates.

[4] One of her students at the University of Cluj was Ionel Haiduc (a future President of the Romanian Academy), who wrote an undergraduate thesis on polyoxometalates under her direction in 1959.