Joan Freeman was born in Perth in 1918, and completed her schooling in Sydney. The daughter of an accountant and a musician, her education was jeopardised during the Great Depression, when her father lost his job. Her mother, who had been thwarted in her own University ambitions, went to great lengths and personal sacrifice to ensure that her daughter could pursue her passion to study. Joan enrolled in Physics at Sydney Univeristy, and after winning numerous prizes, she became the fourth woman to graduate in Physics from that institution, gaining first class Honours.
She completed a Masters of Science with the experimental physicist, V.A. Bailey, and worked for a time at the Sydney Radiophysics laboratory of CSIR. A CSIR Senior Studentship allowed her to undertake doctoral studies at Cambridge University under the nuclear physicist W. E. Burcham. Having achieved her PhD, she then joined the Tandem Van de Graaff Accelerator Group at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. It was here that she completed her major work on beta-decay forces and their link with electro-magnetic forces.
In recognition of this work, in 1976, she won the prestigious Rutherford medal for physics, awarded by the British institute of Physics, together with her colleague, Roger Blin-Stoyle. This medal, awarded every two years, has only once been awarded to a woman and only twice to Australians (the other being Sir Mark Oliphant). Joan Freeman died this year, at the age of 80, but remains a hero to Australian science.
Reflecting upon the shortage of women in Physics, Joan wrote that women who become physicists do not fit the commonly held view that they are "biological deviants, uncommunicative, unsociable, inhuman, unfeminine, overbearing and well prepared to do battle against the barriers of male chauvinism". On the contrary, the women phsycists she knew had diverse personalities and their most notable common features were "perseverance, self-reliance and a positive enthusiasm for their subject."
In addition to these characteristics, Joan Freeman seems to have had more than her share of modesty and humility, and was delighted and surprised by her achievements. Dr Ann Eyland, of Sydney University, noted these qualities when observing Joan’s reaction to a ceremony at Sydney University in 1993 when she received an Honorary doctorate of Science. She remarks, however, that "behind the bright blue eyes, the diminutive figure, lay an extra-ordinary intellect honed and sharpened by years of disciplined, focused hard work, and a deep passion for her subject. The passionate physicist has gone but the results of her passion remain".
[This article was extracted from an article by Ann Eyland in the University of Sydney News, 30 April 1998]
Sydney born scientist Ailsa Swan was educated in Melbourne and undertook a science degree at Melbourne University between 1939 and 1941. On graduation she worked for Monsanto and then for the research section of the army. After completing a PhD in London she worked in CSIRO's industrial chemistry division.
She was an active member of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and a founding member of the Phillip Island conservation society. For over 20 years she participated in the monitoring of water and wading birds at high tide roosts in the Western Port Survey. She became an expert in environmental planning and the legislation linked to it. She represented conservation groups through submissions, research, preparation of material and appearances at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. She was a member of the Western Port Regional Planning and Co-ordinating Committee and a member of a number of delegations to the Land Conservation Council.
Her commitment to the protection of the natural environment and of bird-life in particular encouraged others and provided a splendid role model.
[Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 1998]