Daphne Frances Jackson (23 September 1936 – 8 February 1991) was an English
nuclear physicist. In 1971 she became the first female physics professor in the UK. A legacy after her death in 1991 enabled the foundation of the
Daphne Jackson Trust
The Daphne Jackson Trust is an independent UK charity based in the Physics Department at the University of Surrey.
It was established in 1992 to provide Fellowships to scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians to return them to ...
.
Biography
Daphne Frances Jackson was born in
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
; her father was a machine tool operator and her mother had been a textile designer before she married.
[Biography of Daphne Jackson]
Daphne Jackson Trust, accessed October 2012 Jackson went to the local grammar school,
Peterborough County Grammar School for Girls
The Peterborough County Grammar School for Girls was an all-female grammar school in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England.
History
Peterborough County School for Girls
The school which was to become Peterborough County Grammar School for Girl ...
, from where she was able to apply to take physics at
Imperial College in London. She was one of only two female students on the course alongside 88 males.
[First Female Physics Professor]
New Scientist, 21 September 1972
Jackson moved to what is now called the
University of Surrey at the invitation of
Lewis Elton
Lewis Richard Benjamin Elton (born Ludwig Richard Benjamin Ehrenberg; 25 March 1923 – 29 September 2018) was a German-born British physicist and researcher into education, specialising in higher education.
Early life
Born in Tübingen to the ...
to study nuclear physics when he became head of the physics department at Battersea College of Advanced Technology.
[R. C. Johnson, E. A. Johnson, 'Jackson, Daphne Frances (1936–1991)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 18 Oct 2012
/ref> She became a lecturer and she was awarded a doctorate in 1962.[
In 1971, Jackson became Britain's first female professor of physics when she was appointed by University of Surrey ][ at the age of 34.][ She eventually rose to be the dean of the university as well as sitting on a range of bodies; she held a senior position at the ]Meteorological Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope ...
. Jackson was president of the Women's Engineering Society
The Women's Engineering Society is a United Kingdom professional learned society and networking body for women engineers, scientists and technologists. It was the first professional body set up for women working in all areas of engineering, pred ...
between 1983 and 1985, succeeding Rosemary West and succeeded by Linda Maynard. She was vice-president of the Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application.
It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...
, after being its youngest ever fellow.[
Jackson campaigned for women's rights and she was disappointed to see that talented women were lost in lowly jobs because they could not re-enter their career after a break. In 1985 Jackson devised a plan to help these women by allowing them to work for two years where they could readjust to their discipline after taking a break to have a child, becoming a carer or just because they followed their husband's career rather than their own.][ Jackson is reported as saying, "Imagine a society that would allow ]Marie Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
to stack shelves in a supermarket simply because she took a career break for family reasons."
''Qualified women who are unemployed or under-employed following a career break for family commitments represent an appalling waste of talent and of investment in their initial education. Many such women are eager to return to their original careers or to a new field of activity for which their initial education is relevant, provided that retraining can be given and that they can, at least initially, work on a part-time basis''.
Illness and death
Professor Jackson was diagnosed with cancer - a disease she was helping to fight through her work with the Institute for Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital
The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and D ...
. She had published 55 articles on the use of nuclear physics in medicine. She was appointed an OBE in 1987.[ Jackson died in ]Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
in 1991 of cancer.
Legacy
The Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize, established in 2016 and named in Jackson's honour, are awarded by the Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application.
It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...
"for exceptional early career contributions to physics education and to widening participation within it".
The Daphne Jackson Trust was founded in 1992, under her legacy, in order to aid many talented individuals return to their chosen careers after having a family or inevitably pausing their career. The Trust had enabled over 370 STEM researchers to go back to their chosen careers/fields bu 2019.
In 2020 a blue plaque was unveiled in her memory on the site of her former school, the County Grammar School in Peterborough, by the local Civic Society at the suggestion of her brother Ron.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Daphne
1938 births
1991 deaths
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
British nuclear physicists
British women physicists
People from Peterborough
Academics of the University of Surrey
Fellows of the Institute of Physics
British women engineers
20th-century women engineers
Women nuclear physicists
Presidents of the Women's Engineering Society