Nationality British Fields Physicist | Role Physicist Name Bertha Swirles | |
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Died December 18, 1999, Cambridge Similar People Harold Jeffreys, Ralph H Fowler, Max Born | ||
Doctoral advisor Max Born, Ralph H. Fowler | ||
Bertha Swirles
Bertha Swirles, Lady Jeffreys (22 May 1903 – 18 December 1999) was a British physicist who carried out research on quantum theory, particularly in its early days. She was associated with Girton College, University of Cambridge, as student and Fellow, for over 70 years.
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Biography
Bertha Swirles was born in Northampton in 1903, attended Northampton School for Girls and then went up to Girton College, in 1921, to read Mathematics, graduating with first class Honours. She became a research student of Ralph Fowler, one of a distinguished company of his students that included Paul Dirac and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. She was awarded her PhD in 1929, by which time she was an Assistant Lecturer in Manchester. She followed with similar posts in Bristol and then at Imperial College (then the Royal College of Science), London in the 1930s. She married Harold Jeffreys in 1940, and became Lady Jeffreys upon his knighthood in 1953.
Recognition
In 2016 the Council of the University of Cambridge approved the use of Swirles's name to mark a physical feature within the North West Cambridge Development.