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388:. In the letter of recommendation Rutherford wrote for Brooks' application, he noted that "next to Mme Curie she is the most prominent woman physicist in the department of radioactivity. Miss Brooks is an original and careful worker with good experimental powers and I am confident that if appointed she would do most excellent research work in Physics".
205:, on July 2, 1876, to George and Elizabeth Warden Brooks. She was the third of nine children. Her father, George Brooks, worked at his own flour mill until it burned down and was not covered by insurance. He then supported the family by working as a commercial traveler for a flour firm. Brooks moved around
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physics professor, Dean Laura Gil of
Barnard responded by saying "that whenever your marriage does take place it ought to end your official relationship with the college". This began a heated exchange of letters, in which Brooks conveyed that she felt she had a duty to both her profession and her sex
33:
407:. She had three children, two of whom tragically died in their teens. Her life revolved around domestic life, organizing the activities of household servants. She remained active in organizations of university women, but no longer did any work in the field of physics.
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Canadian
Nuclear Laboratories considered her research of radon and actinium pioneering, and her brief research career exceedingly accomplished. In 2016, 110 years after she finished her career, the Harriet Brooks Building, a nuclear research laboratory At
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in 1894, the only one beside her sister
Elizabeth who would attend university and six years after McGill graduated its first female student. While Brooks won a scholarship for the final two years of her Bachelor's degree,
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Though none of Brooks' research was published under her name during this period, her contributions were considered valuable and she was cited in three contemporary articles published under the aegis of the
352:. However, Dean Gil cited the college's trustees, who argued that one could not be both a married woman and a successful academic. Brooks broke off her engagement and agreed to stay at Barnard.
708:"Marlene F. Rayner-Canham and Geoffrey W. Rayner-Canham, Harriet Brooks: Pioneer Nuclear Scientist, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992). xx + 168 pp., illus., index. $ 29.95"
812:
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for her master's degree. In 1899, even before her thesis was completed, her work on damping of electrical oscillations was published in the
Transactions of the Canadian Section of the
449:. She was the first person to show that the radioactive substance emitted from thorium was a gas with molecular weight of at least 100, a discovery crucial to the determination of
395:" turned her away from physics, while others have pointed out, that she had met women academics and could have continued research, "but she preferred conventional pleasures".
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In 1907, at the age of 31, Brooks married a wealthy engineer of the
Montreal Power and Water Company former McGill physics instructor Frank Pitcher, and settled in
312:. During her year there, Brooks won the prestigious Bryn Mawr European Fellowship. Rutherford arranged for Brooks to take this fellowship at his former lab at the
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However, Brooks decided to terminate her physics career for unknown reasons, giving room for speculation. In 1992, it has been suggested that "provinciality and
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In 1903, Brooks returned to her position at Royal
Victoria College and rejoined Rutherford's group, carrying out research that was published in 1904.
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in mathematics and natural philosophy in 1898, and was awarded the Anne Molson
Memorial prize for outstanding performance in mathematics.
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was preoccupied with his own research and ignored her progress. She saw the irrelevance of advanced degrees in the
British context.
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In the 1980s, the importance of
Harriet Brooks' contributions to physics became recognized as foundational work in the field of
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disqualified her from receiving a scholarship for her first two years. Brooks graduated with a first-class honours
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Brooks died April 17, 1933, in
Montreal at the age of 56 "of a ‘blood disorder’," presumably leukaemia caused by
320:. While her research at Cambridge on the radioactive decay of radium and thorium was successful, her supervisor
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297:. Papers by Rutherford and Brooks in 1901 and 1902 were published in Royal Society Transactions and in the
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in radioactive decay. The fact that the new gas was significantly lighter than thorium led Rutherford and
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to continue her work even after marriage. Brooks was backed by the head of Barnard's physics department,
1018:
E. Rutherford and H. T. Brooks, "The New Gas from Radium," Trans. R. Soc. Canada, 1901, Section III, 21
367:. In October 1906, Brooks travelled with Gorky and a group of other Russians to the Italian island of
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169:
753:"Wither: The Many Triumphs and Long Fall of Nuclear Physicist Harriet Brooks. (Women in Science 71)"
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596:"Biography – BROOKS, HARRIET (Pitcher) – Volume XVI (1931–1940) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography"
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After her master's degree in 1901, she did a series of experiments to determine the nature of the
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375:, and shortly after started working as one of Curie's staff at the Institut du Radium in
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274:. The same year, Brooks received an appointment as nonresident tutor at the newly formed
932:"Harriet Brooks Pitcher 1876–1933 – Hall of Fame – Canada Science and Technology Museum"
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Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
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on April 18, 1933 credited her as the "Discoverer of the Recoil of a Radioactive Atom."
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and for two years she did not research but teach. When in 1906, she became engaged to a
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278:, the women's college of McGill University. In 1901, she became the first woman at
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964:"Strengthening our commitment to sustainability. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories"
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In 1901, Brooks obtained a fellowship to study for her doctorate of physics at
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293:. These experiments served as one of the foundations for the development of
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in the calibre of her aptitude. She was among the first persons to discover
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with her family during her childhood. At some point, she attended the
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363:. Through the Martins, she became acquainted with Russian author
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618:"My Dear Eve…: The Remaining Letters from Eve's Rutherford File"
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to propose that it must be a new chemical element, now known as
996:
Rayner-Canham, Marelene F.; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey W. (1992).
938:. August 4, 2014. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014.
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Collegiate Institute in Ontario. Her family finally settled in
206:
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Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoff (January 2005).
176:, who guided her graduate work, regarded her as comparable to
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Damping of the oscillations in the discharge of a Leyden jar.
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376:
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780:"Harriet Brooks (1876-1933): Canada's First Woman Physicist"
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In 2002, 69 years after her death she was inducted into the
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Rutherford wrote a highly laudatory obituary in the journal
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860:"The New York Times". April 18, 1933 – via Proquest.
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Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (1992).
384:. During this time, Brooks secured her a position at the
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Last page thesis Harriet Brooks 1901, thanking Rutherford
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In the summer of 1906, Brooks moved to a retreat in the
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Brooks was the first graduate student in Canada of Sir
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Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoff (2016).
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316:, where she became the first woman to study at the
1081:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
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678:100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces
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359:run by John and Prestonia Martin, two prominent
335:In 1905, Brooks was appointed to the faculty of
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533:. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 82.
509:. Vol. XVI (1931–1940) (online ed.).
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568:"Brooks, Harriet (1876–1933) Encyclopedia.com"
152:(July 2, 1876 – April 17, 1933) was the first
466:Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame
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503:. In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.).
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160:. She is most famous for her research in
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410:Her sister Elizabeth married physicist
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1036:Canadian Science and Technology Museum
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653:. www.physics.ucla.edu. Archived from
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616:Hobbin, A.J.; Cohen, Montague (2010).
1046:Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
876:"Harriet Brooks (Mrs. Frank Pitcher)"
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874:Rutherford, Ernest (June 1933).
506:Dictionary of Canadian Biography
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371:. During this time, Brooks met
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282:to receive a master's degree.
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1:
680:. Dundurn Group. p. 53.
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184:and to try to determine its
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1061:Canadian nuclear physicists
511:University of Toronto Press
501:"Brooks, Harriet (Pitcher)"
201:Harriet Brooks was born in
93:Discoverer of atomic recoil
10:
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936:sciencetech.technomuses.ca
37:Harriet Brooks (1876–1933)
16:Canadian nuclear physicist
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474:Chalk River Laboratories
386:University of Manchester
64:April 17, 1933 (aged 56)
1086:Barnard College faculty
706:Pyenson, Lewis (1992).
676:Forster, Merna (2004).
399:Personal life and death
314:University of Cambridge
229:Harriet Brooks entered
225:Undergraduate education
299:Philosophical Magazine
276:Royal Victoria College
255:
172:in radioactive decay.
657:on September 28, 2013
476:was named after her.
287:radioactive emissions
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236:gender discrimination
572:www.encyclopedia.com
357:Adirondack Mountains
318:Cavendish Laboratory
1021:Brooks, H. (1901) "
892:1933Natur.131..865R
809:McGill Publications
345:Columbia University
1025:" Master's thesis.
427:The New York Times
419:radiation exposure
412:Arthur Stewart Eve
256:
1011:978-0-7735-1254-2
974:on August 7, 2020
787:Physics in Canada
759:. August 24, 2016
393:social convention
361:Fabian Socialists
306:Bryn Mawr College
280:McGill University
260:Ernest Rutherford
246:Graduate research
231:McGill University
174:Ernest Rutherford
164:. She discovered
158:nuclear physicist
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138:Ernest Rutherford
134:Academic advisors
124:McGill University
100:Scientific career
83:McGill University
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373:Marie Curie
365:Maxim Gorky
264:electricity
197:Early years
186:atomic mass
178:Marie Curie
69:Nationality
1055:Categories
968:www.cnl.ca
718:(2): 216.
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480:References
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734:0829-2507
268:magnetism
192:Biography
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622:Fontanus
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219:Montreal
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154:Canadian
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