Edith Quimby - pioneering medical physicist

In the early decades of the 20th century scientists around the world were busy looking for ways to use radioactive materials. Following its groundbreaking discovery by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, and then the isolation of radium as a pure metal by Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne in 1910, radium seemed to hold the most promise. The two most common applications were in luminescent paint applied to clock hands so they glowed in the dark, and in medicine where it was used to treat cancer.

We know from learning the story of the Radium Girls, using radium as a component of paint would have deadly repercussions. By the mid-1920s, countless young woman had died after working painting on the dials of watches and clocks. They'd been instructed to lick their paintbrushes to create a finer point, and thus they ingested radium in unknown quantities before becoming sick.

The field of nuclear medicine was somewhat more promising. There are some horrific stories of radium being used in large quantities to treat cancers where doctors sewed capsules of radium directly to the tumor, as in the case of Henrietta Lacks and the treatment she received for cervical cancer. But it seemed that smaller doses had some positive effects. The question was how much was the right amount?

That answer came from medical physicist Edith Quimby. In 1919, after having earned a bachelor's in mathematics and physics, and completed a master's in physics, Edith set out to find a research position. She accepted a position as assistant physicist at the Memorial Hospital in New York City, working with Gioacchino Failla who had established the first laboratory devoted to researching the medical uses of radiation.

It was her task to determine the precise dosage needed for each patient that would have the fewest side effects. At the time, radiotherapy (where radium-containing needles are directly applied to tumors) was in its infancy. There was no consistency in regards to placement or dosage, and no way to determine if the tumor was receiving the correct exposure needed for proper treatment. It was her research that led to a set of guidelines for the most effective arrangement of needles in 1932. Known as the "Quimby rules" they were the standard used until computer-aided placement techniques became available in the 1980s.

She moved to Columbia University in 1942 where she taught radiology and medical physics while conducting research using the new kinds of radioactive materials being created by accelerators and nuclear reactors. She was named as a full professor there in 1954. It was here where she taught future Nobel Laureate Rosalyn Yalow.

Her research also included quantifying the amounts of different kinds of radiation needed to have the same effect, which laid the foundation for future studies to understand how cumulative exposures of each would affect a body. This calculation could not only help inform the doctors about a patient's long-term side effects, but would also help radiation technicians protect their own health by reducing risks of repeated exposure. She created a "film badge" system where X-ray film strips were covered with black paper and distributed to laboratory personnel to measure incidental exposure.

Also in 1954, she became the first woman and first physicist to be named president of the American Radium Society. In her acceptance speech, she outlined the need for an organization of medical physicists in the US. And thus, because of her call to action, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine was founded in 1958.

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For more information:

Her New York Times obituary: "Edith Quimby Dies; Radiation Expert"

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons: "Edith Quimby: First Woman Medical Physicist"

Photo source: Whitman College Archives

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Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell - science star

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (born 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist with a long and prolific career, who is best known for her discovery of the first radio pulsars in 1967. She served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, and president of the Institute of Physics from 2008 to 2010. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 2007 she promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Growing up, her father was an architect who worked on the Armagh Planetarium. When she was still quite young, she discovered his astronomy books, which she enjoyed immensely. As a student at the Preparatory Department of Lurgan College, she had to fight to be allowed to take classes in science. The school's policy was changed after several parents complained. Unfortunately, when she was ready to move to secondary school she failed the eleven-plus exam, and was instead sent to study at a Quaker boarding school.

This was a good move, giving her the preparation she needed for her college studies. Still interested in astronomy, she attended the University of Glasgow, where she earned a BS in physics in 1965, and then went on to the University of Cambridge, where she studied quasars with Antony Hewish. It was here where she helped construct the radio telescope that she used to discover the first radio pulsar.

In July 1967, she was recording signals received by the radio telescope when she noticed a little bit of "scruff" in the data. They were looking for more quasars, analyzing data from scanning the sky once every four days. All the data was printed on a kind of chart-reporter -- a device with three pens that tracks input, similar to a seismograph, only in this case tracking radio waves rather than seismic waves. After seeing this "scruff" on her reports enough, she could tell it wasn't from human-made radio transmissions, and it wasn't from a quasar. But what was it?

She set up some new recordings to try to figure out its source, but it wasn't until November that she was able to get a clear chart showing a series of pulses, exactly 11/3 seconds apart. When she showed her data to Antony Hewish, he was skeptical, but agreed to visit the observatory with her to check it out. When it was clear that it wasn't something coming from the earth (not radar bouncing off the moon, satellites in orbit, or other bits of human-made interference) they started to wonder if it was some kind of transmission from an alien world, hence her readings were dubbed "Little Green Man 1" or LGM-1..

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My eureka moment was in the dead of night, the early hours of the morning, on a cold, cold night, and my feet were so cold,
they were aching. But when the result poured out of the charts,
you just forget all that. You realize instantly how significant
this is—what it is you’ve really landed on—and it’s great!

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It wasn't until she was analyzing data from a completely different part of the sky and found a similar bit of "scruff" at the same frequency that she began to suspect it was something else entirely. It was unlikely that the first reading was from aliens, and even more unlikely that there was a second set of aliens transmitting at the same frequency from somewhere else in the universe.

More analysis, and more "scruff," and now there were four different sources. By now they had a term, "pulsar" -- so named because it was a rapidly rotating neutron star that emitted regular pulses -- which they used in a paper in January of 1968. When the news about LGM-1 hit the press, she and the rest of the team were inundated with interview requests from all sides. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the majority of the questions she fielded were along the lines of "How many boyfriends do you have," and whether she was "taller than or not quite as tall as Princess Margaret?" When the excitement died down, she handed off the research to other students while she wrapped up her thesis. She graduated with her PhD in 1969, got married and moved from radio astronomy to gamma-ray astronomy, glad to be able to do some "reliable and solid, undramatic science."

And she has. She worked at the University of Southampton from 1968 to 1973, the University College London from 1974 to 1982, and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh from 1982 to 1991. In addition to her duties on campus, she also worked as a tutor, consultant, examiner, and lecturer for the Open University -- a public distance learning and research university -- from 1973 to 1987, and served as Professor of Physics from 1991 to 2001. She was a visiting professor in Princeton University and Dean of Science in the University of Bath from 2001 to 2004, and is currently Visiting Professor of Astrophysics in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Mansfield College. In February 2018 she was appointed Chancellor of the University of Dundee.

She served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, and president of the Institute of Physics from 2008 to 2010. When asked about not being included in the Nobel Prize, she laughs it off good-naturedly, saying, "You can actually do extremely well out of not getting a Nobel prize, and I have had so many prizes, and so many honours, and so many awards, that actually, I think I've had far more fun than if I'd got a Nobel Prize - which is a bit flash in the pan: You get it, you have a fun week, and it's all over, and nobody gives you anything else after that, cos they feel they can't match it."

She's done alright. She's received a dozen or so awards, was the first woman to serve as president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1999 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and then promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2007.

For more reading:

You can read her article about the discovery of pulsars, "Little Green Men, White Dwarfs or Pulsars?"

The Herald article "Face to Face: science star who went under the radar of Nobel Prize judges"

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Katharine "Kay" Way - nuclear scientist

Katharine "Kay" Way (February 20, 1902 – December 9, 1995) was one of the leading female physicists on the Manhattan Project, she did much of her work at the Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab) in Chicago analyzing neutron flux data as they attempted to create a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. She is best known for the development of the Way-Wigner formula which calculates the beta decay rates of fission products. As a physicist, she spent much of her career working on the Nuclear Data Project, created to standardize the organization and sharing of nuclear data, and which grew out of her work in Chicago where she was collecting and analyzing enormous amounts of data. It was a suggestion she made that sparked the creation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in 1943.

Her childhood was interrupted by the death of her mother when she was 12. When her father remarried, her new step-mother was an otolaryngologist (an ear, nose and throat doctor), and you can imagine how this career woman influenced Kay's ideas of the possibilities for her own future. In 1920 she began studying at Vassar College, but she had to leave after two years because of illness (likely tuberculosis). After a lengthy recovery, she enrolled in Barnard College, but had to go slowly. She eventually began taking classes at Columbia University where she met Edward Kasner, a renown mathematician. Her fascination with mathematics led her to the study of physics, and she eventually graduated with her bachelor's in 1932.

She earned her Ph.D. in physics at the University of North Carolina, where she focused her attention on nuclear physics -- the field she would dedicate her life to. Thinking she'd find a career as a professor teaching classes and working in the lab, she accepted a position at the University of Tennessee in 1939. But once it became clear the US was headed to war, she looked for ways to become involved. When she heard about the work being done with the Manhattan Project out of Chicago (the same project Leona Woods was involved in), she called her old UNC professor and convinced him to hire her. She performed critical analysis of the deluge of data coming in from early nuclear reactor designs, to help determine whether it would be possible to create a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Her calculations were used to build Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor ever built. It set the foundation for the work of other scientists at Los Alamos building the first atomic bomb.

When many of the nuclear scientists involved in the Met Lab project realized the implications of their work being used to build atomic weapons, they took an important, but ultimately unsuccessful stand by signing the Szilard Petition of July 17, 1945, which was sent to President Truman and the Secretary of War, calling for them to reconsider the use of the atomic bomb against the people of Japan. As a response to the bombings, in 1946 many of these same scientists wrote important essays highlighting their concerns about nuclear weapons, which were gathered in a book she co-edited, One World or None: A Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb.

Her activism wasn't limited to anti-nuclear writings. She was a strong advocate for bringing the work of these important scientists to universities in the Southeast, likely influenced by her time teaching at the University of Tennessee before the war. In 1943, as a direct response to a comment she made about ensuring students and faculty at these institutions had access to the researching being done at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Because of her suggestion, the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS), now known as Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), opened up research opportunities and has been a major influence on the development of science and technology in the Southeast.

After the war, she took a position at the National Bureau of Standards (where Chien-Shiung Wu and Charlotte Moore Sitterly, two other important women in physics were also working in their respective fields). By 1953, there was a massive amount of data about nuclear physics being recorded, but it was nearly impossible for scientists to tap into what they needed. During her years of analyzing large amounts of raw information while working in Chicago, she had come up with methods for collating and sorting incoming data in order to find what she needed. From this, she created the Nuclear Data Project (NDP) in 1953 as a way to organize and share this information in sheets and tables making it easy to cross reference, setting the standard for how data is gathered, evaluated and presented in the field of nuclear physics.

For more reading:

"Historically Speaking: Katherine Way and her influence on Oak Ridge"

Atomic Heritage Foundation biography: "Katharine Way"

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Michelle Simmons - 2018 Australian of the Year

"I found that the more difficult the challenges I took on, the more rewarding it was and I thought 'wow this is a phenomenal world to be in.'" Michelle Simmons, 2018 Australian of the Year

Last month physicist Michelle Simmons was named the 2018 Australian of the Year for her ground-breaking work in Quantum mechanics -- a booming field for scientific research in Australia at the moment. Determined to specialize in atomic electronics and quantum computing -- basically, using the properties of atoms to create extremely small devices that can crunch enormous amounts of data much faster than traditional computers -- she moved from her home in Britain to Australia in 1999.

"It made me think 'wow he didn't really expect me to be able to do this' and that really got me thinking 'there must be other things that people don't expect of me, let me find out what they are.'"

She got her start in math and science as a young girl. A unexpected win over her father at a game of chess, sparked an interest in determining other areas where she might be able to surprise those who may underestimate her. That desire to push the boundaries of her own knowledge drove her to seek out other challenges, eventually leading her the cutting edge of science -- quantum physics.

In the two decades since she arrived in Australia as a brash young post-doc -- so sure of her future success, she only purchased a one-way ticket -- she has pushed the research on quantum computing forward by leaps and bounds. In addition to her teaching and research duties as Scientia Professor of Quantum Physics at the University of New South Wales, she has been named Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow and ARC Federation Fellow twice, and was a founding member and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology. And she is the editor-in-chief of npj Quantum Information -- a scientific journal focused on the field of quantum information science.

"The best part about my work is the amazing variety and the constant challenge. There is always more to learn and I constantly look forwards to those moments when I have a little extra time to read and think."

Her research group was the first to develop a working single-atom transistor as well as the thinnest wires made from silicon.

The Australian of the Year award is one given each year to an Australian citizen who has been deemed to be a national role model across a wide variety of industries. Michelle Simmons is the 13th woman to earn the title of Australian of the Year.

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Katharine Blodgett Gebbie - astrophysicist and civil servant

Katharine Blodgett Gebbie (July 4, 1932 – August 17, 2016) was the founding Director of the Physical Measurement Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and of its two immediate predecessors, the Physics Laboratory and the Center for Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, both for which she was the only Director. During her 22 years of management of these institutions, four of its scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

As a child, she was inspired by her famous aunt (and namesake), Katharine Burr Blodgett, who was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and went on to invent low-reflectance "invisible" glass. Almost following in her aunt's footsteps, Katharine also enrolled in Bryn Mawr, but had to transfer to MIT after he father's death.

Her future husband proposed to her, but Katharine initially turned him down saying she was going to move to London to study the stars and earn her Ph.D. Instead of seeing those as a hindrance, he completely supported her and together they moved to England.

After earning her degree in 1964, she returned to the US where she practiced "laboratory astrophysics" -- where scientists study the basic physical processes of astrophysics and perform simulations of these processes to understand how they work throughout the universe.

In 1981, she moved from the laboratory to the management side of operations, eventually accepting an appointment as Chief of the Quantum Physics Division at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology). She continued to rise in the ranks of management, eventually directing several hundred employees. Her job, as she saw it, was to select the best and brightest scientists and then make sure they have everything they need to succeed. And succeed they did. She is likely the only manager to have directed four Nobel winners in her career.

She made it her goal to creating more opportunities for women and other marginalized groups in physics, and was a co-organizer of a Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics bringing together more than 100 young female physics majors for encouragement and inspiration. She was awarded the Women in Science and Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other honors.

You can watch a short interview with her: Katharine Blodgett Gebbie: In Her Own Words

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Nobel Women - Physics

The 2016 Nobel Prizes are being announced this week, and so far it's still a dude-fest. So, while we don't have any new women Nobel winners yet to celebrate, I figure maybe it's time to celebrate some of the women from history who've taken home the gold medal.

The post about women who've won the Nobel Prize in Physics is depressingly short. In the 121 years since Alfred Nobel created his award, only TWO women have won for their work in the field of physics. The most recent was Maria Geoppert Mayer, in 1963. And before that? It was Marie Curie in 1903.

Sixty years between the first and the second. And nearly that many years between the second and today. The snarky part of me wonders if we'll actually have to wait again until 2023, and for someone named Maria?

But seriously. I know it's still incredibly tough for women to find academic success in Physics, for a multitude of reasons. Here's hoping that starts to change quickly. In the meantime, we can celebrate Marie and Maria and encourage other young women to follow in their stead.

Marie Curie
Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 along with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Marie was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize, and it almost didn't happen. The prize committee had originally only intended to give the award to the two male scientists. It wasn't until Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, himself a scientist and an advocate for women in science, made a formal complaint that they included Marie Curie in the nomination.

Maria Goeppert Mayer
Maria Goeppert Mayer won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 along with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure."

Maria, like many other female scientists married to male scientists at the time, did much of her important work in unpaid or part-time positions because of anti-nepotism rules at most major universities. Despite this ridiculous limitation, she still maintained a stellar record of research and publication, and developed a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear shells, explaining the reasons behind her "magic number" of nucleons that result in stable configurations.

Like Marie, she earned her Nobel by applying her brilliant mind through diligence research in order to answer the age-old question of "why?" Fortunately for her, the committee did not need to be convinced she deserved it. Even they could recognize magnificent contribution to science.

Perhaps as more women are seeking advanced degrees in physics, we'll start to see more women winning Nobel Prizes. One can hope.

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