Margaret Eliza Maltby (1860-1944) was an American physicist notable for measurement of high electrolytic resistances and conductivity of very dilute solutions. She was the first woman to receive a PhD from Göttingen University.
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A.B. Oberlin College 1882 A.M. Oberlin College 1891 B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1891 Ph.D. Göttingen University 1895 under Friedrich Kohlrausch.
1889-93 Instructor, Physics Department, Wellesley College 1897-98 Instructor, Lake Erie College 1898-99 Research Assistant, Physikalisch-Technische Resichsantalt, Charlottenburg, Germany 1900-03 Instructor, Chemistry Department, Barnard College, Columbia University 1903-10 Adjunct Professor, Physics Department, Barnard College 1910-13 Assistant Professor, Barnard College 1913-31 Associate Professor and Chair, Physics Department, Barnard College
Most of her significant research occurred before she began teaching at Barnard College, where her involvement in administration left her little time for research. (Barnard College was founded in 1889 as a college for women.) Maltby was a mentor to her students, vigorously extending efforts to support their professional advancement. During her 31 years of teaching at Barnard, and the nearly 20 years that she was chair of the physics department, Maltby took a great interest in her students learning. For music students, she introduced what was probably the first course in the physics of music.
There are many examples of her efforts to support the professional advancement of female physicists. As chair of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Committee on Fellowships, Maltby administered funds that supported women actively engaged in physics research during the early part of their careers. Since women were not eligible for many research fellowships because of their gender, the AAUW Fellowships were critical for maintaining a cadre of women physicists. Maltby's enormous, behind the scenes effort on the Fellowships contributed to their preservation.
Maltby supported women's efforts both to live a normal life and do physics. As chair of the Physics Department, she vigorously opposed the forced resignation of Harriet Brooks when she planned to marry. Barnard College had a Dean's rule that "the College cannot afford to have women on the staff to whom the college work is secondary; the College is not willing to stamp with approval a woman to whom self-elected home duties can be secondary."
"Her students greatly admired her. One of them wrote to me:`Professor Maltby was my mentor--a gracious lady--a friend and a counselor. Her most memorable advice to me was not to forgo marriage for a career--which advice I followed and lived happily ever after.' Miss Maltby herself never married but nevertheles enjoyed some of the pleasures of motherhood and grandmotherhood through the adoption in 1901 of the orphaned son of a close friend." --Katharine Sopka