Harriet Brooks
| Harriet Brooks | |
|---|---|
|
Harriet Brooks (1876-1933) | |
| Born |
July 2, 1876 Exeter, Ontario |
| Died | April 17, 1933 (aged 56) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Fields | Nuclear physics |
| Institutions |
Barnard College McGill University |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Academic advisors | Ernest Rutherford |
| Known for | Discoverer of atomic recoil |
Harriet Brooks (July 2, 1876 – April 17, 1933) was the first Canadian woman nuclear physicist. She is most famous for her research on nuclear transmutations and radioactivity. Ernest Rutherford, who guided her graduate work, regarded her as being next to Marie Curie in the calibre of her aptitude.[1] She was among the first persons to discover radon and to try to determine its atomic mass.[1]
Life
Harriet Brooks was born Exeter, Ontario in 1876 and graduated with B.A. in mathematics and natural philosophy from McGill University in 1898.[2]
She was the first graduate student of Ernest Rutherford (then professor at McGill University), under whom she worked immediately after graduating.[3] With him she worked on electricity and magnetism for her master's degree in 1901. She was the first ever woman at McGill to receive a master's degree.[4] Following her Master's she was a fellow a Bryn Mawr, and subsquently took a fellowship at Cambridge. [5]
After her Master's again under Rutherford she also did a series of experiments to determine the nature of the radioactive emissions from thorium. These experiments served as the foundation for the development of nuclear science.
For a brief period she also worked under the supervision of Marie Curie.[6]
In 1904 Brooks was appointed to the faculty of Barnard College and in 1907 she married Frank Pitcher and left the field of physics. [1]
An obituary for Harriet Brooks was published by the New York Times on April 18, 1933, recording that she had died the previous day in Montreal at the age of 57, crediting her as the "Discoverer of the Recoil of a Radioactive Atom."[7] Brooks is considered one of the leading women of her time in the field of nuclear physics, second only to Marie Curie. She is a member of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.[8]
References
- 1 2 3 Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (1992). Harriet Brooks: Pioneer Nuclear Scientist. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780773563186.
- ↑ "McGill Yearbook". 1901. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
- ↑ Hobbin, A.J.; Cohen, Montague (2010). "My Dear Eve…: The Remaining Letters from Eve's Rutherford File". Fontanus. 12: 2. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
- ↑ "Harriet Brooks". www.physics.ucla.edu. Retrieved 1999-07-22. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ Forster, Merna (2004). 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. Dundurn Group. p. 53. ISBN 9781417572212.
- ↑ "New York Times". April 18, 1933 – via Proquest.
- ↑ "New York Times". April 18, 1933 – via Proquest.
- ↑ "Harriet Brooks Pitcher 1876-1933". The Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
Further reading
- Rayner-Canham, Marelene F.; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey W. (1992). Harriet Brooks: Pioneer Nuclear Scientist. McGill-Queen’s University Press. ISBN 0-7735-1254-3.
- E. Rutherford and H. T. Brooks, “The New Gas from Radium,” Trans. R. Soc. Canada, 1901, Section III, 21
- Brooks, H. (1901) "Damping of the oscillations in the discharge of a Leyden jar." Master's thesis.