Elizabeth M. Shaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Mary Shaw (1928-02-14)14 February 1928 |
| Died | April 25, 2013(2013-04-25) (aged 85) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | Imperial College, London |
Elizabeth Mary Shaw (14 February 1928 – 25 April 2013) was a Britishhydrologist and author of the popular textbookHydrology in Practice.
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Elizabeth Shaw was born atHebburn on Tyne, UK, in 1928. In her childhood, she lived and went to school inDurham, UK. She gained her bachelor's degree in Geography fromBedford College in London, in 1949. In 1953 she began a postgraduate course in hydrology atDurham University, during which she spent two years measuring rainfall and run-off over the Upper Weardale catchment where she lived.[1]
She died 25 April 2013.[1]
From 1955–60 Elizabeth Shaw worked as a research assistant atBedford College under Professor Gordon Manley. Here she worked on calculating meteorological series, using a (then new)Facit Hand Calculating Machine, contributing to theCentral England temperature record that continues today to form the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence. From 1960–63 she was a researcher atKeele University, working with Professor Stanley Beaver. Later, from 1963–65 she worked as a hydrologist at the Devon River Board at Exeter, and started to gain international recognition, including being one of only two women to give papers at aWMO International Conference in Quebec, Canada.[1]
Elizabeth Shaw became a lecturer atImperial College, London in 1965, as featured on the history page of the Environmental and Water Resource Engineering Department.[2] There, she worked with Professor Peter Wolf as part of the hydrology section (formed in 1956) of the Civil Engineering Department. Shaw was recruited as the department started to award master's degrees in hydrology, starting 1964–65. At Imperial, she developed new analytical techniques to design rain gauge networks for accurate estimation of areal average rainfall.[3][4]
Elizabeth Shaw's life and work is featured in the History of Hydrology Wiki.[5]
Elizabeth Shaw's greatest career achievement was as author of the popular textbook "Hydrology in practice", first published in 1983 and now in its fourth edition. The textbook covers hydrological measurements, analysis, modeling and applications, and is aimed at hydrology students in engineering and practice, particularly in the UK. It includes methods for use of theFlood Estimation Handbook, that offers guidance from theCentre for Ecology and Hydrology on standard methods for rainfall and river flood frequency estimation in the UK.
The textbook is described by the publisher as "likely to be the course text for every undergraduate/MSc hydrology course in the UK".[6] The third edition was described as "an excellent compendium of techniques and methods of hydrological measurement and data analysis" in a review published byHydrological Sciences Journal.[7] It was also reviewed by theQuarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society[8] and theJournal of Hydrology,[9] and the textbook is featured by the History of Hydrology Wiki.[10]Hydrology in Practice is widely used and recommended by universities and academic institutions, for example being suggested as an exam reference by the American Institute of Hydrology,[11] and recommended as a hydrology reading highlight by Dartmouth College.[12]
