Vivian "Vob" O'Brien (1924 – December 24, 2010) was an American applied mathematician and physicist whose research included

fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including '' aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) ...

and

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum refl ...

. She worked for many years as a researcher at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

, and is the namesake of the

Craik–O'Brien–Cornsweet illusion The Cornsweet illusion, also known as the Craik–O'Brien–Cornsweet illusion or the Craik–Cornsweet illusion, is an optical illusion that was described in detail by Tom Cornsweet in the late 1960s. Kenneth Craik and Vivian O'Brien had made e ...

Education and career

O'Brien was originally from

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, and was educated at

Eastern High School (Baltimore) Eastern High School, established in 1844 along with its sister school Western High School, was a historic all-female, public high school located in Baltimore City, Maryland, 21218, U.S.A. Its final building, at 1101 East 33rd Street, is to the w ...

and then

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/ ...

, where she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1945. Because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, technical jobs were open to women at the time, and she began working in aerodynamics as a computer for the

Glenn L. Martin Company The Glenn L. Martin Company—also known as The Martin Company from 1957-1961—was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin, and operated between 1917-1961. The Martin Company produce ...

. She became a research assistant in aerodynamics at Johns Hopkins University in 1947, and while doing so earned two master's degrees, in mathematics in 1950 and in engineering aeronautics in 1954. In 1955 she became a principal staff physicist at the Eisenhower Research Center of the

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and empl ...

, a position she kept for over 30 years until her retirement in 1986. She completed a Ph.D. in fluid mechanics in 1960, becoming the first female employee of the Applied Physics Laboratory with a doctorate.

Research

O'Brien's research included

aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals ...

, the flow of blood through the human eye, and visual perception. She is the namesake of the

in the optical perception of brightness.

Recognition

O'Brien was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its moti ...

(APS) in 1976, following a nomination by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Vivian 1924 births 2010 deaths Scientists from Baltimore 20th-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians American physicists American women physicists Goucher College alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society 20th-century American women 21st-century American women