Joan Maie Freeman
Joan M. Freeman | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 January 1918 |
| Died | 18 March 1998 (aged 80) Oxford |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | Newnham College, Cambridge |
| Awards | Rutherford Medal and Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Harwell Tandem Accelerator Group Council for Scientific and Industrial Research |
Joan Maie Freeman (7 January 1918 – 18 March 1998) was an Australian physicist.
Biography
Joan Maie Freeman was born in Perth on 7 January 1918. Her family moved to Sydney in 1922 and she attended the Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School. While still a girl, she took evening classes at Sydney Technical College. She completed her Intermediate Certificate Examination and earned a place at the University of Sydney in 1936. She received her BSc in 1940 and was awarded a Commonwealth Research Scholarship to continue her MSc. She took a position at the Radiophysics Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research as a research officer in June 1941. She researched radar during World War II. After the war ended, Freeman engaged in research on the behaviour of low-pressure gas discharges at microwave frequencies. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research then awarded her a Senior Studentship that allowed her to read for her PhD at the University of Cambridge in England. She attended Newnham College and later studied short-range alpha particles with Alex Baxter, working on the HT1 accelerator.[1]
In 1951 Freeman became Senior Scientific Officer at the Harwell Tandem Accelerator Group. She later led the group and received the Rutherford Medal and Prize in 1976 with Roger Blin-Stoyle, for their research of the beta-radioactivity of complex nuclei. She received an honorary doctorate from Sydney University and fellowships from the Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society.[1] She retired in 1978.[2]
Freeman wrote the 1991 book A Passion for Physics. She died in Oxford on 18 March 1998.[1] Freeman married John Jelley in 1958.
References
- ^ a b c Hetzel, Phyllis (22 October 2011). "Obituary: Joan Freeman". The Independent.
- ^ "Honorary Awards: Dr Joan Maie Freeman". The University of Sydney News. 8 June 1993.
