Friends of the University of Adelaide Library

Ruby Payne-Scott: a woman scientist in a man's world

The Friends of the University of Adelaide Library invite you to a free public talk by Dr. Miller Goss on the life and work of Ruby Payne-Scott.
Thursday 22 March 2007 at 6.00 for 6.30pm
Ira Raymond Exhibition Room, Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide

What was it like to be one of the few woman scientists in a man's world 60 years ago? Dr. Miller Goss, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico, will trace the important scientific contributions of one of the first radio astronomers, Ruby Payne-Scott, from her early days as a science teacher in Adelaide to her career as a radio astronomer, including the challenges she met as a woman in the male-dominated world of post-war science. Although radio waves from space were first detected in 1930, until radar technology developed during Word War II was widely available, the number of radio astronomers was very small.
Payne-Scott became an important physicist in the group working on radar with Joe Pawsey, the father of Australian radio astronomy. She made many contributions to the successful Australian radars used in the war in the South Pacific.

Bookings by Tuesday 20 March to:
Email: karen.hickman@adelaide.edu.au
Telephone: 8303 4064

Admission is free and open to the public: gold coin donation invited.

Seating is limited.

Paul Wilkins
Deputy University Librarian
Barr Smith Library