Jean Maud Bullen (1918–2002) was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

-born

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...

, regarded as one of Australasia's first women pioneers in geoscience. She was the sister of

Keith Edward Bullen Keith Edward Bullen FAA FRS (29 June 1906 – 23 September 1976) was a New Zealand-born mathematician and geophysicist. He is noted for his seismological interpretation of the deep structure of the Earth's mantle and core. He was Professor of ...

Career

Bullen was a scholarship winner for the Junior New Zealand Test , and she worked first as a secondary school teacher. During

WW2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising ...

, she worked for the

geological Survey of New Zealand GNS Science (), officially registered as the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited, is a New Zealand Crown Research Institutes, Crown Research Institute. It focuses on geology, geophysics (including seismology and volcanology), a ...

, and researched groundwater information of

using

magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...

s. She was then a foundation member of the Geophysics Division, of the geological Survey of New Zealand. Until she retired, Bullen worked for the Ionosphere Section of the

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR was the name of several British Empire organisations founded after the 1923 Imperial Conference to foster intra-Empire trade and development. * Department of Scientific and Industria ...

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand. She spent considerable time preparing instrumentation for upper atmosphere observations, but she never visited the

Scott Base Scott Base is a New Zealand Antarctic research station at Pram Point on Ross Island near Mount Erebus in New Zealand's Ross Dependency territorial claim. It was named in honour of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, RN, leader of two British exp ...

Selected work

* Bullen, J. M. (1961). An analysis of estimated values of maximum usable frequency throughout a sunspot cycle and associated electron density trends, at Christchurch, New Zealand. ''New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics'', ''4''(4), 331-346. * Bullen, J. M. (1961). Atmospheric scale height as a modifying influence on linear trend of F-region electron density with sunspot number. ''Nature'', ''192''(4802), 542-543.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullen, Jean Maud 1918 births 2002 deaths New Zealand geophysicists People associated with Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand) 20th-century New Zealand women scientists 20th-century New Zealand physicists