Ruby Payne-Scott

Ruby Payne-Scott

Payne-Scott as a student in the 1930s, possibly while she was studying at the University of Sydney (1929-1932)
Born 28 May 1912(1912-05-28)
Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
Died 25 May 1981(1981-05-25) (aged 68)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality  Australian
Fields Radio astronomy, radiophysics
Alma mater University of Sydney

Ruby Violet Payne-Scott (28 May 1912 – 25 May 1981) was an Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy and is the first female radio astronomer.

Contents

Early life

Payne-Scott was born in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, on 28 May 1912. She later moved to Sydney to live with her aunt, and completed secondary schooling at Sydney Girls High School.[1]

She won two scholarships to undertake tertiary education at the University of Sydney, where she completed a B.Sc. in Physics in 1933, an M.Sc. in 1936, and a Diploma of Education in 1938.

Career

One of the more outstanding physicists[2] that Australia has ever produced and one of the first people in the world to consider the possibility of radio astronomy, and thereby responsible for what is now a fundamental part of the modern lexicon of science, she was often the only woman in her classes at the University of Sydney.

Her career arguably reached its zenith while working for the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (then called CSIR, now known as CSIRO) at Dover Heights, Hornsby and especially Potts Hill in Sydney, Australia. Some of her fundamental contributions to solar radio astronomy came at the end of this period. She is the discoverer of Type I and Type III bursts[3] and participated in the recognition of Type II and IV bursts. Payne-Scott played a major role in the first-ever radio astronomical interferometer observation from 26 January 1946, when the sea-cliff interferometer was used to determine the position and angular size of a solar burst. This observation occurred at either Dover Heights (ex Army shore defence radar) or at Collaroy (ex Royal Australian Air Force radar).[4]

During World War II, she was engaged in top secret work investigating radar. She was the expert on the detection of aircraft using PPI (Plan Position Indicator) displays. She was also at the time a communist and an early advocate for women's rights. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was interested in Payne-Scott and had a substantial file on her activities, with some distortions.

Bill Hall and Ruby Payne-Scott secretly married in 1944; at this time, the Commonwealth government had legislated that a married woman could not hold a permanent position within the public service. She continued to work for CSIR while secretly married until the regulations of the new CSIRO in 1949 raised the issue of her marriage. The following year, her treatment by CSIRO resulted in hostile written exchanges with Sir Ian Clunies Ross (Chairman of CSIRO) about the status of married women in the work place. She lost her permanent position in CSIRO. However, her salary was maintained at a level comparable to that of her male colleagues. In 1951, she resigned a few months before her son Peter was born; there was no maternity leave at this time.

She changed her name to Ruby Hall only after she left CSIRO. Bill and Ruby Hall had two children: Peter Gavin Hall, an internationally renowned mathematician working in theoretical statistics and probability theory, and Fiona Margaret Hall, one of Australia's more prominent artists, whose career is described by Julie Ewington in her 2005 book Fiona Hall.

Ruby Payne-Scott died in Sydney, New South Wales, 25 May 1981. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in the last years of her life.[5]

Gallery

Payne-Scott, Alec Little (middle) and 'Chris' Christiansen at the Potts Hill Reservoir Division of Radiophysics field station in about 1948. Payne-Scott and Little were working on observations of the Sun at 97 MHz using the newly constructed swept-lobe interferometer. Australia Telescope National Facility Historical Photographic Archive - B14315. Used with permission.  
International Union of Radio Science conference at the University of Sydney, photo likely taken 11 August 1952. Front row (left to right): Chris Christiansen, F. Graham Smith (UK), Bernard Y. Mills, S.F. Smerd, C.A. Shain, R. Hanbury Brown (UK), Ruby Payne-Scott, A.G. Little, Marc Laffineur (France) and John G. Bolton. Second row: John Paul Wild, J.L. Steinberg, J.V. Hindman, Frank J. Kerr, C.A. Muller (Netherlands) and O.B. Slee. Third row: C.S. Higgins, J.P. Hagen (USA) and H.I. Ewen (USA). Back row: J.H. Piddington, E.R. Hill and L.W. Davies. Unless otherwise noted, individuals are Australian. ATNF Historical Photographic Archive: B2842-43. Used with permission.  

Professional roles

Publications

References

  1. ^ "Distinguished Old Girls". The History of Sydney Girls High School. Sydney Girls High School. http://www.sghs.nsw.edu.au/About_Us/History.html. Retrieved 2011-03-26. 
  2. ^ Claire Hooker, Irresistible Forces: Australian Women in Science, Melbourne University Press, 2004, 215 pages; ISBN 0 52285 107 X. Also, the Science Show http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2004/1010849.htm
  3. ^ Solar Radio Burst Classifications, Ionospheric Prediction Service, accessed 19 October 2011
  4. ^ Goss & McGee, 2009.
  5. ^ Ruby Payne-Scott - Radio Astronomer, Pauline Newman, The Science Show, 14 February 2004, ABC Radio National, accessed 19 October 2011

External links

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