Isabelle Stone: breaking the glass ceiling with thin films and teaching

TL;DR

Isabelle Stone's pioneering career in physics combined groundbreaking research on thin films with her dedication to teaching women, breaking gender barriers in early 20th-century science.

Contribution

The paper highlights her unique role as the first woman with a Ph.D. in physics in the US and her efforts in advancing women in science and education.

Findings

First woman in the US with a physics Ph.D.

Founded the American Physical Society with other women.

Mentored women across multiple continents.

Abstract

Physicist Isabelle Stone forged ahead in what was largely a men's profession in the early 1900s. She is credited as the first woman in the United States to obtain a Ph.D. in physics, one of the two women founders of the American Physical Society, and one of only two women to attend the first International Congress of Physics. Hers is the story of an unmarried, educated woman doing scientific research, living and working abroad, and providing educational stepping stones for more women to go to college. It starts with the electric resistance of thin films in Chicago and becomes a journey in teaching women up and down the east coast, across the Atlantic, and back again.