Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2022
Volume 67, Number 3
Monday–Friday, March 14–18, 2022; Chicago
Session W43: Pais Prize Session: Women in Quantum PhysicsDiversity Invited Live Streamed Prize/Award Undergrad Friendly
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Sponsoring Units: FHP Chair: Elise Crull Room: McCormick Place W-375B |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 3:00PM - 3:36PM |
W43.00001: Chien-Shiung Wu and her contributions to experimental physics Invited Speaker: Jinyan Liu Chien-Shiung Wu was one of the outstanding physicists of the 20th century. She has made fundamental contributions to physics and resolved several outstanding problems in nuclear physics and particle physics. She conducted a well-known series of experiments on β decay. In particular, her 1956 Cobalt-60 parity experiment is viewed as one of the landmark experiments of twentieth-century physics. In addition, Wu also conducted experiments concerning the fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 3:36PM - 4:12PM |
W43.00002: Breaking the glass ceiling: Maria Lluïsa Canut between Spanish and American Physics Invited Speaker: Marta Jordi Maria Lluïsa Canut (1924-2005) was a prominent Spanish physicist, specialized in crystallography. In 1955 she finished her PhD at the University of Barcelona under the advisory of the Spanish crystallographer José Luís Amorós (1920-2001), whom she married later. Both conducted research in Barcelona, at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid and at the School of Engineering and Technology of the Southern Illinois University. Moreover, Canut played a major role in the feminist struggles for equal salaries between women and men at American universities in the 1970s. I will analyze her scientific contributions, her engagement in feminist struggles and the dynamics of Canut and Amorós as a scientific couple. |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 4:12PM - 4:48PM |
W43.00003: Jane Dewey:A woman in the ‘lucky generation’ of physicists in the United States (1925-1933) Invited Speaker: Adriana Minor Jane Dewey (1900-1976) was the only woman in what physicist John Slater named ‘The lucky generation’ of physicists in the United States. This generation was characterized by being born around the beginning of the 20th century, getting training in physics just at the time of definition of the quantum theory, and having the opportunity to spend some years in Europe, learning and doing research with the most famous physicists of the time. That was the case for Jane Dewey, who after completing her PhD in science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925, spent two years in Copenhagen working in the laboratory of Niels Bohr. There, she developed experimental research regarding the Stark effect on Helium, which for some scholars meant a pioneering work in the field of quantum optics that she promoted when back in the US. Her bosses, Duncan MacInnes, Niels Bohr and Karl Compton, appreciated her unusual abilities for research, as well as her merits. However, her career was less brilliant than the rest of her generation. Like many other women scientists of the time, she had to manage the obstacles of finding a job position allowing doing scientific research and the strain of creating a family life. She finally got divorced and lost her job around 1933. Thus, she left behind her relevant and promising experimental research track in quantum physics. This paper will reconsider her contribution to the development of experimental quantum physics as part of ‘the lucky generation’. |
Thursday, March 17, 2022 4:48PM - 5:24PM |
W43.00004: Pais Prize (2022): Tomorrow began yesterday: Why history matters Invited Speaker: Patricia Fara As a historian of science, my broad aim is to improve the future by investigating the past – especially by pinpointing sources of inequality and encouraging young women to choose a career in science. Campaigners frequently stress the importance of role models, yet iconic figureheads can be unrealistic and reinforce the notion that female scientists are abnormal. In particular, the fame of Marie Skłodowska Curie has eclipsed recognition of her inspiring contemporaries. This paper discusses the achievements of Curie’s close friend, the eminent engineer Hertha Ayrton, and also explores the activities during World War One of the physicist Edith Stoney and the mathematician Ray Strachey. |
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