Elizabeth A. Wood
| Elizabeth A. Wood | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 19, 1912 New York City, NY |
| Died | March 23, 2006 (aged 93) Stroke |
| Fields | Crystallography |
| Institutions | Bell Telephone Laboratories |
| Alma mater | Barnard College, Bryn Mawr |
| Known for | First woman scientist at Bell Labs, research into electromagnetic properties of crystals |
Elizabeth Armstrong Wood (1912–2006) was an American crystallographer and geologist who ran a research program at Bell Telephone Laboratories that led to the development of new superconductors and lasers. She was known for the clarity of her writing and her efforts to educate the general public about scientific subjects.
Elizabeth Armstrong "Betty" Wood was born October 19, 1912, in New York, New York. She went to Barnard College for her B.A. and Bryn Mawr College for her master's degree and doctorate in geology. She went on to become an instructor in geology at Bryn Mawr for the 1934–35 and 1937–38 academic years. In the same period, she was an instructor in geology and mineralogy at Barnard (1935–37, 1938–41). She eventually became a research assistant at Columbia University.
In 1942, Wood—whose interest in crystallography had developed at Bryn Mawr—took a job in the Physical Research Department of Bell Telephone Laboratories, where she was their first woman scientist. For over two decades, she ran a crystallographic research program at Bell Labs, focusing primarily on the electromagnetic properties of crystals. She addressed such problems as growing single crystals that would have useful conductive, magnetic, or other properties; as well as investigating new crystalline materials with ferromagnetic or piezoelectric properties. She looked at phase transitions in silicon, irradiation coloring in quartz, and ways to change the state of certain materials through the application of electric fields. In the course of her research, she developed "the first systematic notation for surface crystallography". Her work fed into the development of new superconductors and lasers at Bell Labs.
Wood became known for the clarity of her writing, particularly in books intended for nonscientists such as Science for the Airplane Passenger (1969). Her Crystals and Light (1964), written for people with no prior background in optics, was long considered the standard beginner's textbook in the field. A version of this book, Experiments with Crystals and Light (1964), was put out by Bell Labs for high school students as both a booklet and an experiment kit. Her Crystal Orientation Manual (1963) was a handbook for technicians on the proper preparation of crystals for research. As the title of her 1962 book Rewarding Careers for Women in Physics (1962) suggests, she championed efforts to bring more women into the sciences, speaking out on the issues involved—such as cultural disapproval of professional women—at meetings and conferences.
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