Arlene Judith Lennox (1942–2008) was an American

medical physicist A medical physicist is a health professional with specialist education and training in the concepts and techniques of applying physics in medicine and competent to practice independently in one or more of the subfields (specialties) of medical phys ...

. Known for her work on neutron therapy for cancer patients at

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle phys ...

, she became "one of the world's experts on neutron therapy", and her work was featured in the 2009 documentary ''The Matter of Everything''.

Education and career

Lennox was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. She was educated at an all-girl Catholic high school, entered a convent as a

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

at age 14, finished high school at age 15, and became an undergraduate at

Notre Dame College Notre Dame College (Notre Dame College of Ohio or NDC) was a private Roman Catholic college in South Euclid, Ohio. Established in 1922 by the Sisters of Notre Dame as a women's college, it was coeducational from January 2001 until its closure ...

in Ohio at age 16. She studied there to become a high school mathematics and science teacher, and taught for six years, beginning at age 17. She spent the last two summers of this period studying for a master's degree at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

in Indiana, supported by a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

program aimed at improving the quality of national science education. She was invited to continue at the University of Notre Dame as a doctoral student, becoming the only woman in her class and one of only two women in the physics program there. Her doctoral research was performed in collaboration with the

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...

. After completing her doctorate she came to Fermilab as a postdoctoral researcher in 1974, and ended up spending the rest of her career there, asking to be released from her vows when her order tried to reassign her to other duties in 1976. From 1974 to 1985 she worked on basic physics as part of the development of a

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

lens, used to focus

antiproton The antiproton, , (pronounced ''p-bar'') is the antiparticle of the proton. Antiprotons are stable, but they are typically short-lived, since any collision with a proton will cause both particles to be annihilated in a burst of energy. The exis ...

s as part of the development of an

source at the laboratory. In 1985, that project was completed, and in the same year, the laboratory's neutron therapy facility, founded in 1976, shifted focus from a grant-funded research facility to a fee-based medical facility; as part of a major reorganization at the laboratory, she was reassigned to be a manager and medical physicist at the neutron therapy facility. She continued there, becoming head of the program, until retiring shortly before her death.

Recognition

In 2003, Lennox was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

(APS) "for her leadership in the field of neutron therapy".

Personal life

Lennox married David P. Eartly, another Fermilab physicist, in 1977. She died of

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

on May 24, 2008.

References

External links

Photo of Lennox lecturing at a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Physics Department Colloquium
, Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, American Institute of Physics {{DEFAULTSORT:Lennox, Arlene 1942 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American physicists American women physicists American medical physicists Notre Dame College (Ohio) alumni University of Notre Dame alumni People associated with Fermilab Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American women scientists Physicists from Ohio 20th-century American women scientists