Ruby Payne-Scott

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Ruby Violet Payne-Scott May 28, 1912 - May 25, 1981 was an Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy and is the first female radio astronomer.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Payne-Scott was born in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, on May 28, 1912. She later moved to Sydney to live with her aunt, and completed secondary schooling at Sydney Girls High School.[1] She won two scholarships to undertake tertiary education at the University of Sydney, where she completed a BSc in 1933, an MSc in 1936, and a Diploma of Education in 1938.

Photograph of Ruby Paye-Scott as a student in the 1930s,possibly while she was studying at the University of Sydney 1929-1932 for a B.Sc. in physics. From Peter Hall and the Hall family collection.

Ruby as a Young Woman

[edit] Career

One of the more outstanding physicists[2] that Australia has ever produced and one of the first people in the world to consider the possibility of radio astronomy, and thereby responsible for what is now a fundamental part of the modern lexicon of science, this brilliant woman was often the only female in her classes at the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Her career arguably reached its zenith while working for the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (then called CSIR now known as CSIRO) at Dover Heights, Hornsby and especially Potts Hill, Sydney, Australia. Some of her fundamental contributions to solar radio astronomy came at the end of this period. She is the discoverer of Type I and Type III bursts and participated in the recognition of Type II and IV bursts. Payne-Scott played a major role in the first ever radio astronomical interferometer observation from 26 January 1946 (Australia Day), when the sea-cliff interferometer was used to determine the position and angular size of a solar burst. This observation occurred at either Dover Heights (ex Army shore defence radar) or at Collaroy (ex Royal Australian Air Force radar). [3]

During WWII she was engaged in top secret work investigating radar. She was the expert on the detection of aircraft using PPI (Plan Position Indicator) displays. She was also at the time a communist and an early advocate for women’s rights. ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) was interested in Payne-Scott and had a substantial file on her activities, with some distortions.

The most commonly published photograph of Payne-Scott was taken at the Potts Hill Reservoir Division of Radiophysics field station in about 1948. 'Chris' Christiansen is to the right and Alec Little in the middle. Payne-Scott and Little were working on observations of the sun at 97 MHz using the newly constructed swept-lobe interferometer. Australia Telescope National Facilty Historical Photographic Archive - B14315. Used with permission.

Ruby Alec and Chris


Bill Hall and Ruby Payne-Scott secretly married in 1944; during this period, the Commonwealth government had legislated that a married woman could not hold a permanent position within the public service. She continued to work for CSIR while secretly married until the regulations of the new CSIRO in 1949 raised the issue of her marriage. In the following year, her treatment by CSIRO resulted in hostile written exchanges with Sir Ian Clunies Ross (Chairman of CSIRO) about the issue of the status of married women in the work place. She lost her permanent position in the CSIRO; in addition she was no longer a participant in the superannuation (pension) programme. However, her salary was maintained at level comparable with her male colleagues. In 1951 she resigned a few months before her son Peter was born; there was no maternity leave at this time.

She did participate in the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) conference at the University of Sydney in August 1952. Her photograph was taken with many of the prominent radio astronomers at this conference. Most of the radio astronomers at URSI 1952 are shown here. Front row left to right: Chris Christiansen, F. Graham Smith (UK), B. Y. Mills, S.F. Smerd, C. A. Shain, R. Hanbury Brown (UK), Ruby Payne-Scott, A. G. Little, M. Laffineur (France) and J. G. Bolton. Second row: J. P. Wild, J. L. Steinberg, J. V. Hindman, F. J. Kerr, C. A. Muller (Netherlands) and O. B. Slee. Third row: C. S. Higgins, J. P. Hagen (USA) and H. I. Ewen (USA). Back row: J. H. Piddington, E.R. Hill and L. W. Davies. Individuals with no country designation are Australian. Surprisingly Pawsey, the leader of the radio astronomy group at RPL was not in the photo. Likely day for the photo is 11 August 1952. ATNF Historical Photographic Archive: B2842-43. Used with permission.

URSI Group

She changed her name only after she left CSIRO; she became ‘Ruby Hall’ at that time. Bill and Ruby Hall had two remarkable children – Peter Gavin Hall, an internationally renowned mathematician working in theoretical statistics and probability theory, and Fiona Margaret Hall, one of Australia's more prominent artists, whose career is described by Julie Ewington in her book from 2005 ‘ Fiona Hall.’

Ruby Payne-Scott died in Sydney, New South Wales, May 25, 1981. It is likely that she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the last years of her life.

[edit] Professional roles

  • Research fellow, Cancer Research Committee, University of Sydney, 1932-35.
  • Woodlands Church of England Grammar School Glenelg (Adelaide) 1938-1939.
  • Engineer, AWA Ltd, 1939-41.
  • Division of Radiophysics, CSIR (now CSIRO), 1941-51.
  • Home duties 1951-63.
  • Mathematics/science teacher, Danebank Church of England School, Sydney, 1963-74.

[edit] Publications

  • Goss, W. M. and McGee, Richard X., "Under the Radar The First Woman in Radio Astronomy, Ruby Payne-Scott". Springer, 2009.
  • Relative intensity of spectral lines in indium and gallium. Nature, 131 (1933), 365-366.
  • (With W.H. Love) Tissue cultures exposed to the influence of a magnetic field. Nature, 137 (1936), 277.
  • Notes on the use of photographic films as a means of measuring gamma ray dosage. Sydney. University. Cancer Research Committee. Journal., 7 (1936), 170-175.
  • The wavelength distribution of the scattered radiation in a medium traversed by a beam of X or gamma rays. British Journal of Radiology, N.S., 10 (1937), 850-870.
  • (With A.L. Green) Superheterodyne tracking charts. II. A.W.A. Technical Review, 5 (1941), 251-274; Wireless Engineer, 19 (1942), 290-302.
  • A note on the design of iron-cored coils at audio frequencies. A.W.A. Technical Review, 6 (1943), 91-96.
  • Eight unpublished classified technical reports at the Division of Radiophyiscs during World War II including Pawsey and Payne-Scott from 1944 : Measurements of the noise level picked up by an S-band aerial. CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory Report, RP 209 (1944).
  • Solar and cosmic radio frequency radiation; survey of knowledge available and measurements taken at Radiophysics Laboratory to Dec. 1, 1945. CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory Report SRP 501/27 (1945).
  • (With J.L. Pawsey and L.L. McCready) Radio-frequency energy from the sun. Nature, 157 (1946), 158.
  • ‘A study of solar radio frequency radiation on several frequencies during the sunspot of July-August, 1946. CSIR Radiophyscis Laboratory Report, RPL 9 (1947).
  • (With D.E. Yabsley and J.G. Bolton) Relative times of arrival of bursts of solar noise on different radio frequencies. Nature, 160 (1947), 256.
  • The visibility of small echoes on radar PPI displays. Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 36 (1948), 180.
  • Solar Noise Records taken during 1947and 1948. CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory Report. RPL 30 (1948).
  • (With L.L. McCready) Ionospheric effects noted during dawn observations on solar noise. Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, 53 (1948), 429.
  • Bursts of solar radiation at metre wavelengths. Australian Journal of Scientific Research (A), 2 (1949), 214.
  • The noise-like character of solar radiation at metre wavelengths. Australian Journal of Scientific Research (A), 2 (1949), 228.
  • Some characteristics of non-thermal solar radiation at metre wave-lengths. Journal of Geophysical Research, 55 (1950), 233. (In collection of papers ‘Summary of Proceedings of Australian National Committee of Radio Science, URSI, Sydney, 16-20 January, 1950)
  • (With A.G. Little) The position and movement on the solar disk of sources of radiation at a frequency of 97 Mc/s. I. Equipment. Australian Journal of Scientific Research (A), 4 (1951), 489.
  • (With A.G. Little) The positions and movement on the solar disk of sources of radiation at a frequency of 97 Mc/s II. Noise Storms. Australian Journal of Scientific Research (A), 4 (1951), 508.
  • (With A.G. Little) The position and movement on the solar disk of sources of radiation at a frequency of 97 Mc/s. III. Outbursts. Aust. J. of Scientific Research A, 5 (1952), 32.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Distinguished Old Girls". The History of Sydney Girls High School. Sydney Girls High School. http://www.sghs.nsw.edu.au/History/index.html. Retrieved 2008-05-25. 
  2. ^ Claire Hooker, Irresistible Forces: Australian Women in Science, Melbourne University Press, 2004, 215 pages; ISBN 0 52285 107 X. Also, the Science Show http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2004/1010849.htm
  3. ^ Goss & McGee, 2009.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Payne-Scott"