Harriet Brooks

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Harriet Brooks (January 1, 1876 - January 1, 1933) was the first Canadian woman nuclear physicist. She is most famous for her research on nuclear transmutations and radioactivity. Ernest Rutherford, who guided her graduate work, regarded her as being next to Marie Curie in the calibre of her aptitude.

She was born in Exeter, Ontario on January 1, 1876. She graduated with B.A. in mathematics and natural philosophy from McGill University in 1898.

She was the first graduate student of Ernest Rutherford (then professor at McGill University), under whom she worked immediately after graduating. With him she worked on Electricity and Magnetism for her Master's degree in 1901. She was the first ever woman at McGill to receive a Master's degree.

After her Master's again under Rutherford she also did a series of experiments to determine the nature of the radioactive emissions from thorium. These experiments served as the foundation for the development of nuclear science.

She was among the first persons to discover radon and to try to determine its atomic mass.

For a brief period she also worked under the supervision of Marie Curie.

In 1907 she married Frank Pitcher and left the field of physics since in those days it was mandatory in universities for any woman to resign from her job after getting married.

She died on her fifty seventh birthday in 1933.Harriet Brooks is considered the next leading women for her time in radioactivity right behind Marie Curie.