Marion Ross (physicist)

Dr Marion Amelia Spence Ross FRSE (9 April 1903 – 3 January 1994) was a Scottish physicist noted for her work in X-ray crystallography and fluid dynamics. She was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was one of five daughters of William Baird Ross, organist, composer and founder of The Edinburgh Society of Organists (ESO).

After school at Edinburgh Ladies' College, Marion Ross studied Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University, receiving prestigious bursaries in Mathematics, and graduating with honours. Ross then studied at teacher training college in Cambridge for one year and taught mathematics in a secondary school in Woking, Surrey for two years In 1928, she took up a post as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Edinburgh, and instigated a course in Acoustics for music students. Her work with Professor C. G.Barkla resulted in her being awarded a PhD in 1943.

For one year, she worked under the direction of William Lawrence Bragg at Manchester University, and together with Arnold Beevers, explored the structure of the crystal Beta Alumina. They noted there were 'problem' sites in the areas occupied by mobile sodium ions. Subsequently the very presence of these ions was discovered to make this crystal an efficient superconductor. As a tribute to their discovery, the locations of these ions are now known as Beevers–Ross and anti-Beevers–Ross sites.

During the Second World War, Ross worked with the Admiralty at Rosyth where she led a research group investigating underwater acoustics. She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1951, two years after the first female Fellows were admitted. After the war she returned to the University of Edinburgh as a Lecturer, studying high-energy particle spectra. She was the first Director of Edinburgh University's Fluid Dynamics Unit. Some of her work was published in the journal Nature.

...
Wikipedia