Jean Laby

Jean Elizabeth Laby (4 November 1915 - 31 May 2008) was an early Australian atmospheric physicist.

Biography

Laby was educated at the Melbourne Church of England Girls' Grammar School and then at the University of Melbourne. She gained a BSc in 1939, MSc in 1951, and PhD in 1959.[1] She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in physics from the University of Melbourne,[2] and the first to be appointed lecturer in the department in 1959.[3]

Laby was employed as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and between 1961 and 1980 she was also a senior lecturer at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Academy at Point Cook, Victoria. Here she worked on radar meteorology, balloon-borne cameras and cosmic radiation measurements.[4] She was also involved in the Climatic Impact Assessment Program between 1972 and 1980 and collaborated with the University of Wyoming measuring atmospheric aerosols, ozone and water vapour in the stratosphere.[5]

Recognition and legacy
Bronze Plaque on Professors Walk on the Parkville campusof Melbourne University.[3]

Laby was the recipient of a University of Melbourne Award,[6] and bronze plaque honouring her is on the wall along the Professors' Walk at the Parkville campus of the University.[3]

Laby was interviewed by the Australian Academy of Science for its Outstanding Women in Science program in 2000,[7] and inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2009.[8]

Her papers are held by the University of Melbourne archives and document the role of women in science and atmospheric research.[9]

Research
  • Jean E. Laby, The thermal conductivity of water and some measurements with other liquids (MSc Thesis, Department of Science, The University of Melbourne, 1951)
  • Jean E. Laby, Atmospheric winds and cosmic rays at balloon altitudes (PhD Thesis, Department of Physics, The University of Melbourne, 1959)

References
  1. Walker, Rosanne. "Laby, Jean (1915 - 2008)". Encyclopaedia of Australian Science.
  2. Flesch, Juliet (2015). "40 Years 40 Women: Biographies of University of Melbourne Women, Published to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the International Year of Women".
  3. "University Awards". University of Melbourne Awards: Our History. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  4. "Balloons Over Melbourne". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 28 October 1954. p. 2. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  5. "Dr Jean Laby (1915-2008), physicist | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  6. University of Melbourne (2017). "2017 Recipients of the University of Melbourne Award" (PDF): 9-10. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Dr Jean Laby in interview with Ms Nessy Allen, Melbourne, Australia 24 August, 2000, [Canberra] : Australia Academy of Science, 2000, retrieved 25 August 2017
  8. "10th Anniversary, Victorian Honour Roll of Women" (PDF). Women and Royal Commission Branch. March 2016. ISBN 978-1-921607-38-7. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  9. "Papers of atmospheric physicist Dr Jean Laby now available: Museums and Collections". Museums and Collections. 27 June 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
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