Bertha Swirles

Bertha Swirles
Bertha Swirles in 1962
Born	22 May 1903 Northampton
Died	18 December 1999 (1999-12-19) (aged 96)
Nationality	British
Fields	Physicist
Doctoral advisor	Max Born Ralph Howard Fowler

Bertha Swirles, Lady Jeffreys (22 May 1903 – 18 December 1999) was a British physicist who carried out research on quantum theory, particularly in its early days. She was associated with Girton College, University of Cambridge, as student and Fellow, for over 70 years.

Bertha Swirles was born in Northampton in 1903, attended Northampton School for Girls and then went up to Girton College, in 1921, to read Mathematics, graduating with first class Honours. She became a research student of Ralph Fowler, one of a distinguished company of his students that included Paul Dirac and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. She was awarded her PhD in 1929, by which time she was an Assistant Lecturer in Manchester. She followed with similar posts in Bristol and then at Imperial College (then the Royal College of Science), London in the 1930s. She married Harold Jeffreys in 1940, and became Lady Jeffreys upon his knighthood in 1953.