author
Harriet Brooks
1876–1933
A pioneering Canadian physicist, she helped reveal how radioactive atoms behave at a moment when the science of the atom was just beginning. Her work on atomic recoil and radioactive decay made her one of the important early voices in nuclear physics.
1 Audiobook
The new gas from radium
by Ernest Rutherford, Harriet Brooks
About the author
Born in Exeter, Ontario, on July 2, 1876, Harriet Brooks studied at McGill University, where she became the first woman to earn a master's degree there in 1901. Working with Ernest Rutherford, she carried out early research on radioactivity and helped show that radioactive substances could change into other elements as they decayed.
Brooks is especially remembered for discovering atomic recoil and for important work connected to radioactive emanations, later understood as radon. She also studied at leading centers of science in Europe and the United States, including work linked to J. J. Thomson and Marie Curie, building a reputation as one of the most talented researchers of her generation.
Even with that promise, her scientific career was cut short. After marrying engineer Frank Pitcher in 1907, she gradually left research, a reminder of how often gifted women were pushed out of academic life in that era. She died in Montreal on April 17, 1933, but her achievements have since been recognized as a major part of the early history of nuclear physics.