Mary Almond facts for kids

Mary Almond (born January 2, 1928 – died April 26, 2015) was an amazing English scientist. She was a physicist, radio astronomer, palaeomagnetist, mathematician, and computer scientist. Mary earned one of the very first PhDs in radio astronomy in 1952. She did this at the famous Jodrell Bank Observatory.

Early Life and Discovering Science

Mary Almond was born in Manchester, England. From 1946 to 1949, she studied physics at the University of Manchester. There, she learned from important scientists like Patrick Blackett and Bernard Lovell.

A Summer at Jodrell Bank

After their first year, Professor Lovell asked if any male students wanted to help at Jodrell Bank Observatory. This involved digging trenches and mixing concrete. Mary Almond bravely asked, "Would there be anything for girls to do at Jodrell?" Lovell said yes, he could find something for them!

Mary and her friend Majorie spent two weeks working there. They lived in a caravan nearby and cycled to the observatory. Their job was to sandpaper rust off a large searchlight mount. This mount would hold an antenna for experiments. During this time, Mary also saw Manning Prentice watching meteors. He compared what he saw with radar echoes on a screen.

Back then, Jodrell Bank was very basic. There were no permanent buildings, just "old army trailers in a sea of mud."

Becoming a Radio Astronomer

The next summer, Mary returned to Jodrell Bank. This time, she lived on site in a tent with other young physics students. After two summers there, Mary decided to do her PhD in radio astronomy. She had graduated from Manchester with a physics degree in 1949.

From 1949 to 1952, Mary worked on her PhD. She analyzed film recordings of meteor echoes. Her goal was to calculate how fast these meteors traveled in space. Radio astronomy was so new that it was hard to find an examiner for her PhD! Eventually, German astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich agreed to be her examiner. Mary published many important papers based on her research.

Career and Groundbreaking Research

After finishing her PhD in 1952, Mary Almond joined a new research group. This group studied palaeomagnetism with Peter Stubbs and John Clegg. Palaeomagnetism is the study of Earth's ancient magnetic field. Scientists learn about how continents have moved over millions of years.

Uncovering Earth's Past

Mary's team studied old rocks called Late Triassic New Red Sandstone. Their research showed that England had rotated 34 degrees. It had also moved closer to the North Pole over a long time. This work was very important. It helped convince other Earth scientists that palaeomagnetism was key to understanding Earth's history.

One piece of equipment they used was a magnetometer. It needed a large gold bar to work. Mary would joke about taking a small piece of gold for her wedding ring. She later married the technician, Jim, who transported the gold bar.

A Pioneer in Computer Science

Mary got married and moved to Imperial College in London. She worked there until 1954. Then, she took a break to have children. But she soon returned to work part-time. First, she taught science at a local school. Then, she learned computer programming.

Mary went on to become a lecturer in mathematics and computer science. She was one of the first computer science lecturers in the UK. She might even have been the very first female computer science lecturer in the country! Mary taught at the University of London for a short time. She then returned to the University of Manchester. Later, she moved to the Open University, where she taught until she retired in 2008 at age 80.