Mary Taylor Slow (15 July 1898 – 26 May 1984) was a British

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

who worked on the theory of radio waves and the application of

differential equations In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

. She was the first woman to take up the study of radio as a profession.

Early life and education

Mary Taylor was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England. Both her parents were schoolteachers. She was educated at Pomona Street Elementary School in Sheffield and then Sheffield High School, from which she won a Clothworker's Scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge. She studied the

Natural Sciences Tripos The Natural Sciences Tripos (NST) is the framework within which most of the science at the University of Cambridge is taught. The tripos includes a wide range of Natural Sciences from physics, astronomy, and geoscience, to chemistry and biology, ...

; in 1919 she was awarded the equivalent of a first-class BA degree, and in 1920 she graduated in mathematics and natural sciences.

Career and research

Taylor continued to study at Girton College under a series of research studentships. From 1922-24 she was Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics at Girton. During this time she became interested in the theory of radio waves and started to conduct research under the guidance of Edward Appleton who was then assistant demonstrator in experimental physics at the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

in Cambridge. When Appleton left Cambridge to join King's College, London, Taylor moved from Cambridge to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

in Germany. Here she was awarded her

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in 1926 for a thesis on aspects of electromagnetic waves that she wrote in German. Taylor was awarded a Yarrow Research Fellowship which enabled her to remain at Göttingen and continue her work on electromagnetic waves with Professor

Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of real ...

. In 1929 Taylor returned to the UK and took up a post as Scientific Officer at the Radio Research Station in Slough, Berkshire (part of the UK

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR was the name of several British Empire organisations founded after the 1923 Imperial Conference to foster intra-Empire trade and development. * Department of Scientific and Industria ...

and the UK National Physics Laboratory, now the National Physical Laboratory). Here she continued to carry out research into the theory of electromagnetic waves, specialising in the magneto-ionic theory of radio wave propagation and in the application of differential equations to physics and radio. During this period she published two papers in the '' Proceedings of the Physical Society','' both on aspects of the Appleton-Hartree Equation. Taylor was a member of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

and the

Cambridge Philosophical Society The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of law ...

Personal life

In 1934 Taylor married Ernest Clive Slow; under the Civil Service Rules of the time this meant that she had to leave her post at the Radio Research Station. The couple had two daughters. Taylor worked for the publication ''

Wireless Engineer Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

'', translating and abstracting papers relating to radio. At some point Clive Slow took up a post in the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment, and the family moved to

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

. From this point Taylor taught mathematics in local schools including Worcester Grammar School for Girls and Lawnside School in Malvern. She died in Malvern on 26 May 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slow, Mary Taylor 1898 births 1984 deaths British physicists British women physicists People educated at Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge University of Göttingen alumni British civil servants 20th-century British women scientists Scientists from Sheffield