Myrtle Hildred Blewett (born Myrtle Hildred Hunt; 28 May 1911 – 13 June 2004) was a Canadian accelerator physicist.[1]
M. Hildred Blewett | |
|---|---|
| Born | Myrtle Hildred Hunt 28 May 1911 |
| Died | 13 June 2004 (aged 93) |
| Education |
|
| Spouse | John P. Blewett |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Accelerator physics |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Bethe |
Early life and education
editBlewett was born on 28 May 1911 in Toronto, Ontario.[2] She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1935 with a BA in physics and mathematics. In 1938, Blewett joined Cornell University as a graduate student, with Hans Bethe as her thesis supervisor. However, due to the United States entrance to the second world war, her thesis work remained incomplete.[3]
Career
editBlewett started her career at General Electric, where she devised a technique for controlling smoke pollution from factory chimneys in the 1940s.[1] She and her husband John Blewett were part of the initial team at Brookhaven National Laboratory.[4] In the early 1950s Blewett contributed to the design of CERN’s first high-energy accelerator, the Proton Synchrotron, while also working on a similar machine proposed for Brookhaven.[5] She then worked at Argonne National Laboratory before finally joining CERN in 1969.[3]
Following her retirement from CERN in 1977, Blewett retired to Vancouver. She died on 13 June 2004, and was commemorated by CERN colleagues Maria Fidecaro and Christine Sutton.[3] She left much of her estate to the American Physical Society, founding the Blewett Scholarship for women physicists who return to the field after a break in their careers.[1]
Personal life
editBlewett married John Blewett in 1936, who was also an accelerator physicist, and later divorced in 1960s.
References
edit- ^ a b c "M. Hildred Blewett". American Physical Society. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ^ Wang, Jessica (1999). American science in an age of anxiety : scientists, anticommunism, and the cold war. Chapel Hill (N.C.): University of North Carolina press. pp. 94–99. ISBN 9780807847497.
- ^ a b c Fidecaro, Maria; Sutton, Christine (July 2011). "Hildred Blewett: a life with particle accelerators". CERN Courier. 51 (6): 35–37.
- ^ Jayakumar, Raghavan (2012). Particle accelerators, colliders, and the story of high energy physics charming the cosmic snake. Berlin: Springer. p. 99. ISBN 9783642220647.
- ^ Blewett, Hildred (1969), "Ten years ago: ...some personal reminiscences", CERN Courier, vol. 9, no. 11, Geneva: CERN, pp. 331–337, retrieved 2024-04-03
Further reading
edit- Blewett, Hildred (November 1969). "Ten years ago". CERN Courier. 9 (11): 331–335.
- Fidecaro, Maria; Sutton, Christine (19 July 2011). "Hildred Blewett: a life with particle accelerators". Physics Today. 6 (2): 28–32. doi:10.1063/1.3061155. ISSN 0031-9228.