Joan Maie Freeman

Joan M. Freeman
Born 7 January 1918
Perth
Died 18 March 1998(1998-03-18) (aged 80)
Oxford
Nationality Australian
Fields Physics
Institutions Harwell Tandem Accelerator Group
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
Alma mater Newnham College, Cambridge
Notable awards Rutherford Medal and Prize

Joan Maie Freeman (7 January 1918 – 18 March 1998) was an Australian physicist.

Biography

Joan Maie Freeman was born in Perth on 7 January 1918. Her family moved to Sydney in 1922 and she attended the Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School. While still a girl, she took evening classes at Sydney Technical College. She completed her Intermediate Certificate Examination and earned a place at the University of Sydney in 1936. She received her BSc in 1940 and was awarded a Commonwealth Research Scholarship to continue her MSc. She took a position at the Radiophysics Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research as a research officer in June 1941. She researched radar during World War II. After the war ended, Freeman engaged in research on the behaviour of low-pressure gas discharges at microwave frequencies. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research then awarded her a Senior Studentship that allowed her to read for her PhD at the University of Cambridge in England. She attended Newnham College and later studied short-range alpha particles with Alex Baxter, working on the HT1 accelerator.[1]

In 1951 Freeman became Senior Scientific Officer at the Harwell Tandem Accelerator Group. She later led the group and received the Rutherford Medal and Prize in 1976 with Roger Blin-Stoyle, for their research of the beta-radioactivity of complex nuclei. She received an honorary doctorate from Sydney University and fellowships from the Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society.[1] She retired in 1978.[2]

Freeman wrote the 1991 book A Passion for Physics. She died in Oxford on 18 March 1998.[1] Freeman married John Jelley in 1958.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hetzel, Phyllis (22 October 2011). "Obituary: Joan Freeman". The Independent.
  2. "Honorary Awards: Dr Joan Maie Freeman". The University of Sydney News. 8 June 1993.
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