Gregg tweeted recently about Robinson Meyer’s Atlantic article on 92-year-old metallurgist Ursula Franklin.
Meyer writes, “It’s hard to describe what Ursula Franklin’s done in her life. There’s just too much.
“The 92-year-old metallurgist pioneered the field of archeometry, the science of dating archaeologically discovered bronzes, metals, and ceramics. Her research into spiking levels of radioactive strontium in baby teeth factored heavily into the U.S. government’s decision to institute a nuclear test ban.
“She delivered the Massey Lectures—an important, annual series of talks delivered by Canadian public intellectuals—in 1989, and she was the first woman to be named University Professor at the University of Toronto, the university’s highest position.
“She was also born in Munich in 1921, and was imprisoned in a Nazi work camp for the last 18 months of the war.”
Meyers’s questions cover much of Franklin’s life, her pacifism, and her trail-blazing for women scientists. It’s a long interview. Here’s a taste.
“Once you were at the University of Toronto … did you see the university change over your time there, and just generally what was it like to be a female professor of engineering during the ’70s and ’80s?”
Franklin answers, “Well, pretty lonely. You know the real difficulty is to protect and advance your women students, and to see that they are in a hassle-free learning environment. When I came to the university, I’d been around long enough to know that I wasn’t one of the gang, and I never would be. I didn’t have a desire to be one of the boys.
“But the great wish—to give my women students a hassle-free, happy learning environment—that’s what’s difficult. The culture of engineering is not a culture of acceptance and understanding of anything that is female and—at the same time—equal. So that’s… that’s a real job. It was a long and hard [work] in this, and it’s by no means yet all done.”
I remember the fuss over strontium 90 in milk. How great to read about this woman ‘s role in uncovering the problem and to see that she is going strong at 92. More at the Atlantic.
Ursula Franklin photo
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 