Elizabeth Laird | |
|---|---|
 Elizabeth Rebecca Laird, from the 1910 Mount Holyoke College yearbook | |
| Born | (1874-12-06)December 6, 1874 |
| Died | March 3, 1969(1969-03-03) (aged 94) |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto,Bryn Mawr College |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Mount Holyoke College,Cavendish Laboratory |
| Thesis | The absorption spectrum of chlorine (1901) |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur Stanley Mackenzie |
Elizabeth Rebecca Laird (December 6, 1874 – March 3, 1969) was a Canadian physicist who chaired the physics department atMount Holyoke College for nearly four decades.[1] She was the first woman accepted by SirJ. J. Thomson to conduct research atCambridge University'sCavendish Laboratory. In her later life she studied electromagnetic radiation for military and medical applications.[2][3]
Asteroid (16192) Laird is named in her honour.
Elizabeth Laird was born on December 6, 1874, inOwen Sound,Ontario. Her mother was Rebecca Laird and her father was Reverend John Laird, a Methodist minister.[4][5]
In 1893 Laird graduated from the London Collegiate Institute, and went on to study at theUniversity College of theUniversity of Toronto after she was denied an exhibition scholarship due to her gender that would have allowed her to study abroad.[4] She earned her bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and physics in 1896 and received the University's Gold Medal.[4][6][7] Although she wanted to immediately begin graduate study at the University of Toronto, her scholarship applications were denied because of her gender.[8] Instead, after graduation she taught for a year atOntario Ladies' College before receiving a postgraduate fellowship in physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1898.[9] She studied at theHumboldt University of Berlin from 1898 to 1899, working withMax Planck and underEmil Warburg on time lag in magnetization.[9][10] During her time there, she became the first person to use aNernst lamp for a physics project.[3] Laird earned her Ph.D. in physics and mathematics from Bryn Mawr College in 1901 for herspectroscopy andmagnetism work.[9]
Laird was hired by Mount Holyoke College as an assistant in physics in 1901. She was promoted to instructor the following year and appointed head of the Physics Department in 1903. During her time at Mount Holyoke College Laird worked on the properties ofelectromagnetic radiation, especiallyX-rays.[1]
She was the first woman accepted by SirJ. J. Thomson to conduct research atCambridge University'sCavendish Laboratory where she worked in the Summer 1905 and Spring 1909.[4] She also studied at theUniversity of Würzburg between 1913-1914 and at theUniversity of Chicago in 1919.[3] She retired to emerita status in 1940.[3]
Laird came out of retirement duringWorld War II to researchradar atUniversity of Western Ontario for the CanadianNational Research Council.[3] Her retirement home was inLondon, Ontario and she turned up at the research centre in 1940, asking to help. She worked there without pay but took a full part in the research, including the experiments in the unheated antenna building. Laird presented several top secret reports on her findings to the National Research Council, taught army and navy personnel, and took her turn monitoring the unheated observation station on the university's campus.[2]
In 1945, she was made an honorary professor of physics at the University of Western Ontario and continued working upon the absorption of ultra-high frequency radiation by tissue. Her research studying the effects of microwave radiation on biological materials was supported by the Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation.[2] By the time she retired for the second time in 1953, she was not only one of Canada's most distinguished physicists, but also the oldest.[2][4][9] PhysicistA.D. Misener said that Laird was "the rare combination of a conscientious and productive research worker and an inspiring and able teacher."[3]
Laird died on March 3, 1969, in London.[9]
The annual Elizabeth Laird Memorial Lecture series, at the University of Western Ontario, was created in 1970[8] and "honours a remarkable person in Western’s history and was the first lecture series in the Faculty of Science to carry the name of an individual."[11]Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador also holds The Elizabeth R. Laird Lecture, established by a bequest from Dr. Elizabeth Laird.[12]
