October was proclaimed by the Government of Canada as “Women’s History Month” in 1992. It is a month to celebrate the significant contribution women make to our society. In light of this celebration I have decided to dedicate blog posts in the month of October to women in our history who have made a significant contribution to Canadian science.

This year’s theme is Women in the Lead and honours the girls and women in Canada, past and present, who have gone first and opened doors for others to follow.

Most of us have heard about Marie Curie, the physicist and chemist who pioneered the field of radioactivity and the only person to have been honoured with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. Marie Curie was of Polish upbringing and later held French citizenship.

In Canada, Harriet Brooks, was regarded as being the next Marie Curie in her research on nuclear transmutations and radioactivity. In fact, Harriet for a brief period in her career worked under the supervision of Marie Curie.

Harriet was born in Exeter, Ontario on January 1, 1876 and was the first Canadian woman nuclear physicist. She graduated with a B.A. in mathematics and natural philosophy from McGill University in 1898. She was the first woman at McGill to receive a Master’s degree, which she completed in Electricity and Magnetism in 1901.

She continued in her career to do a series of experiments to determine the nature of the radioactive emissions from thorium. Her work in this area served as the foundation for the development of nuclear science.

She was among the first to discover radon and attempt to determine its atomic mass.

After her marriage to Frank Pitcher in 1907 she left the field of physics, as it was mandatory in universities for a woman to resign from her job after marriage.

Her obituary in the New York Times on April 18, 1933, credited her as the “Discoverer of the Recoil of the Radioactive Atom.” Harriet Brooks is considered one of the leading women of her time in the field of nuclear physics, second only to Marie Curie.

Imagine what further successes she may have enjoyed, if her career had not been cut short by such stringent and limiting rules.

Harriet Brooks is a pioneer in the field of nuclear science and her many accomplishments should not be forgotten. Not only did she advance science, but did so by going first and paving the way for other women to follow.
For more information on Women’s History Month visit http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/whm/index_e.html