Gabrielle Donnay, née Hamburger (21 March 1920 – 4 April 1987), was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

-born American

crystallographer A crystallographer is a type of scientist who practices crystallography, in other words, who studies crystals. Career paths The work of crystallographers spans several academic disciplines, including the life sciences, chemistry, physics, and m ...

and

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

Life

Gabrielle Donnay was born in Landeshut,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

(now Kamienna Góra, Poland) on 21 March 1920 and emigrated to the United States in 1937. She received her

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from UCLA with highest honors in chemistry in 1941 and was awarded her Ph.D in 1949 from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. She was a postdoctoral fellow at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

from 1949-1950. In 1949, she met and married Joseph (Jose) Donnay, a professor of crystallography and mineralogy at Johns Hopkins University. In 1950, she joined the staff of the Geophysical Laboratory at the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in W ...

, where she worked until 1969. She had concurrent position at the U.S. Geological Survey from 1952-1955. She was a professor in crystallography at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal from 1970 to 1981. She died on 4 April 1987 near Mont St-Hilaire,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Activities and Achievements

Her interest in tourmaline turned out to be a career long interest. Her paper, co-authored with M.J. Buerger, ''The Determination of the Crystal Structure of Tourmaline'' led to 13 more papers on the same topic, including a definitive 1977 paper on the structural mechanism of

pyroelectricity Pyroelectricity (from Greek: ''pyr'' (πυρ), "fire" and electricity) is a property of certain crystals which are naturally electrically polarized and as a result contain large electric fields. Pyroelectricity can be described as the ability of ...

in tourmaline. She and her husband frequently collaborated and they published two editions of "Crystal Data" in 1954 and 1963 to compile the research of all crystallographers. Her area of expertise was in crystal chemistry and structural crystallography. She published more than 134 papers in her lifetime, almost half of which were collaborative projects with her husband. Donnay published ''Laboratory Manual in Crystallography'' based on her classes at McGill University. She also published ''Women in the Geological Sciences in Canada'' in an effort correct the injustices that she experienced in the male-dominated field of geology. She was awarded the Past Presidents’ Medal of the

Mineralogical Association of Canada Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

in 1983. She was the first women named to the John Hopkins Society of Scholar. The mineral '' donnayite'' is named after her and Jose Donnay and the mineral species Gaidonnayite is named after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donnay, Gabrielle 1920 births 1987 deaths University of California, Los Angeles alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Academic staff of McGill University Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Johns Hopkins University faculty American expatriates in Canada Mineralogists Geologists Crystallographers