Isabel Joy Bear
A Biographical Note
Jo O'Neil
Unable
to afford a university education, Joy Bear’s scientific career commenced in
February 1944, when she was appointed as a Junior Laboratory Assistant in the
Minerals Utilization section of the then CSIR (later CSIRO – Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Division of Industrial
Chemistry. Concomitantly, she commenced by part-time study two Associateship
Diploma Courses (Applied Science and Applied Chemistry) at the Melbourne
Technical College. With the financial aid of a Senior Technical College
scholarship, she successfully completed both courses in six years.
In 1950, she resigned from CSIRO to travel overseas. During three years in the UK, she was employed first as an Experimental Scientist in the Metallurgy Division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, and later as a Research Assistant in the Metallurgy Department of Birmingham University.
Returning to Australia in 1953, she rejoined the Minerals Utilization section of CSIRO as an Experimental Officer and over the next ten years worked on a variety of mineral related projects including one with the section head, R.G. Thomas, on the nature of argillaceous odour or “the smell of rain”. Thomas gave the name “petrichor” to this odour. Their published work generated much international interest. Magnus Pyke, popular science broadcaster on the BBC, featured the subject in one of his programmes, and later as a chapter in his book, “Butter Side Up!”. In 1970, Joy’s publications on the subject gained her a Fellowship Diploma in Applied Chemistry from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
During research in the early 1960’s, Joy discovered a number of previously unknown metastable zirconium sulfate hydrates. In collaboration with Dr Gus Mumme, an expert crystallographer, the crystal structures of seven of the compounds were determined. The work enabled Joy to elucidate the mechanism by which these compounds and metastable compounds in general, are formed.
In 1967, the then Chief of Division, Ivan Newnham, despite Joy’s age (40 years), sex and lack of a PhD, argued with the CSIRO executive and won a special case for her reclassification to the research staff of the Division of Mineral Chemistry (DMC). Notably, she was the only woman appointed to the research ranks of DMC over the years of its existence (1959 to the end of 1987).
In the years following her promotion, Joy led research in many aspects of solid state and mineral chemistry and new techniques were patented.
In 1978, she was awarded a Senior Doctoral Degree in Applied Science by the Victoria Institute of Colleges for her published research. The following year she was promoted to Senior Principal Research Scientist.
Joy was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1986 for services to science, particularly in the field of mineral chemistry. She is a fellow of both the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and in 1988 became the first woman to receive the Leighton Medal – the RACI’s premier award.
Recognition of her achievements brought involvement in education matters as a Part-time Commissioner on the Victorian Post-Secondary Education Commission (1986-1990); Chairperson of the Advisory Committee on Technological Research and Development in Colleges of Advanced Education (1987-1990); and a member of Ballarat University College Bachelor of Applied Science Course Advisory Committee (1989-1992). By invitation, she wrote the Foreword for the 1986 Australian Science in Schools Week Resource Book; was the “Occasional Speaker” at the Footscray Institute of Technology 1987 Conferring Ceremony, and in 1989 presented the Melbourne College of Advanced Education’s Seventh Denis Driscoll Lecture in Science Education.
Among other activities she was a foundation Committee Member of the RACI Women in Chemistry Network and is currently a Member of RACI’s Professional Assessment Committee and its History and Archives Committee.
Joy retired in 1992 and is presently an Honorary Fellow with CSIRO Minerals. A book entitled “Alumina to Zirconia: The History of CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry”, which she co-authored with T. Biegler and T.R. Scott, was published in August 2001.
(Jo O'Neil is WISENET Convenor, Victoria)