Bertha Swirles, Lady Jeffreys (22 May 1903 – 18 December 1999) was an English physicist, academic and scientific author who carried out research on quantum theory in its early days. She was associated with

Girton College Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the univ ...

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, as student and Fellow, for over 70 years.

Biography

Bertha Swirles was born in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

in 1903 to Harriett ''née'' Blaxley (born around 1873), a primary school teacher, and William Alexander Swirles (b. 1878), a leather salesman. She went to Northampton School for Girls. In 1921, Swirles

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...

to read

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, taking a

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

. She became a research student of quantum theory partly under Ralph Fowler at the

, one of a distinguished company of his students that included

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...

and

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; 19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian Americans, Indian-American theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to the scientific knowledge about the structure of stars, stellar evolution and ...

. She also carried out research at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

under

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a ...

and

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...

. In 1929, Swirles gained her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

. By this time, Swirles was an Assistant Lecturer at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. She followed with similar teaching posts at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

and then at

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

(then the Royal College of Science), London in the 1930s. She returned to Girton College in 1938 as a mathematics lecturer and Fellow of the College. She continued her research into quantum theory, but also expanded her work to include

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

. In 1949 she became Director of Studies for Mathematics at Girton, a position she held until 1969. In this role she supported and developed the teaching of mathematics to women. She held a variety of positions at the College including Vice-Mistress from 1966 to 1969. In 1940, Swirles married fellow mathematician

Harold Jeffreys Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a British geophysicist who made significant contributions to mathematics and statistics. His book, ''Theory of Probability'', which was first published in 1939, played an importan ...

becoming Lady Jeffreys when he was knighted in 1953. She enjoyed music and was an accomplished pianist and cellist. She died in Cambridge on 18 December 1999 of a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

Recognition

She was president of the

Mathematical Association The Mathematical Association is a professional society concerned with mathematics education in the UK. History It was founded in 1871 as the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching and renamed to the Mathematical Association in ...

for 1969. She received honorary degrees from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

and the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

. In 2016 the Council of the University of Cambridge approved the use of Swirles's name to mark Swirles Court, which consists of 325 graduate student rooms, leased by Girton College, within the North West Cambridge Development.

Bibliography

Book

* Sir Harold Jeffreys and Bertha Swirles (Lady Jeffreys), ''Methods of Mathematical Physics'', third revised edition (Cambridge University Press, 1956 — reprinted 1999). This book, first published in 1946, is commonly referred to as ''Jeffreys & Jeffreys''. , .

Some biographical sketches by Bertha Swirles

* Bertha Swirles, '' John Arthur Gaunt (1904-1944)'', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 73–79 (1990)

* Bertha Swirles, ''Reminiscences and Discoveries: Harold Jeffreys from 1891 to 1940'', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 301–308 (1992)

References

Sources

;Obituaries * R. M. Williams, ''Obituary: Bertha Jeffreys'', The Independent (London), Wednesday, 22 December 1999

https://www.independent.co.uk/] * Mary Walmsley, ''Lady Jeffreys 1903-1999'', The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 84, No. 500, pp. 321–323 (2000)

* J. A. Hudson, ''Lady Bertha Swirles, 1903-1999'',

Astronomy & Geophysics ''Astronomy & Geophysics'' (''A&G'') is a scientific journal and trade magazine published on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) by Oxford University Press. It is distributed bimonthly to members of the RAS. A&G publishes content of i ...

, Vol. 41, No. 3. 36-37 (2000)

External links

*
CWP at UCLA: Bertha Swirles, Lady Jeffreys
* Portrait by Julia Hedgecoe, 19 March 1998
National Portrait Gallery, London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swirles, Bertha 1903 births 1999 deaths British women physicists Academics of Imperial College London Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge People from Northampton Wives of knights 20th-century British physicists 20th-century British women scientists British women mathematicians