Mildred Barnard facts for kids

Mildred Macfarlan Barnard (born August 5, 1908 – died March 9, 2000) was an important Australian scientist. She was a biometrician, mathematician, and statistician. This means she used math and statistics to study living things, like plants and animals.

Early Life and Learning

Mildred Barnard was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1908. Her mother, Jessie Margaret Barnard, helped start a fund to provide food during wartime. Her father, Robert James Allman Barnard, was a mathematics professor. The family moved to Canberra in 1911 when her father started teaching at the Royal Military College. They later returned to Melbourne in the 1920s.

University Studies

Mildred started studying at the University of Melbourne in 1927. She was very good at math and won a special scholarship called the Dixson Scholarship in 1930. That same year, she earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) with honors in mathematics. She then earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in physics in 1931 and a Master of Science (M.S.) in 1932. Her master's project was about how cracks affect thin metal plates.

Discovering Biometrics

After her studies, Mildred wanted to find a job that would let her work more with people. She also noticed that there weren't many jobs for mathematicians and physicists in Australia at the time. So, she decided to study biometrics. This field uses statistics to solve problems in biology and medicine.

In 1934, she began her Ph.D. (a very advanced degree) in statistics at University College London in England. Her teacher was a famous statistician named Ronald Fisher. During this time, she wrote papers on topics like measuring skulls (craniometry) and how the environment affects things. She finished her Ph.D. in 1936.

Career and Later Life

After finishing her studies, Mildred returned to Australia. In 1936, she started working as an assistant biometrician for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This organization helps with scientific research in Australia. Her job involved working with wood products, and she spent time in Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney.

Work at CSIR

At CSIR, Mildred worked with another scientist named Betty Allan. They studied things like how well screws held wood and how long railway sleepers (the wooden beams under train tracks) and telegraph poles lasted.

Mildred got married in 1939. At that time, it was common for women to leave their jobs when they married. However, World War II started, and there was a great need for wood to build airplanes. Because of this, Mildred's resignation was delayed until her first child was born in 1941.

Teaching and Leadership

While raising her family, Mildred taught part-time at the University of Melbourne. Later, she and her family moved to Brisbane. Her husband became a professor at University of Queensland. Mildred continued her part-time teaching there. In 1970, she became a lecturer in mathematical statistics at the University of Queensland.

In 1972, Mildred Barnard became the first Chairwoman of the Brisbane Branch of the International Biometric Society. This shows her leadership in the field of biometrics.

Mildred Barnard passed away in Brisbane on March 9, 2000.

Book

Mildred Barnard also wrote a book called Elementary Statistics for Use in Timber Research with Neil Ditchburn. It was published in 1956 and was used by the CSIR.