A Level Physics: diverse role models for women in particles and medical physics content
08 May 2025
Mike Jackson, Physics Subject Advisor
This blog follows on from my three previous blogs spotlighting women linked to different content areas of A Level Physics content. In this blog I have focussed on nuclear physics and medical physics. I include suggestions of where links can be made to both the Physics A and Physics B specifications. Our STEM Contributors resource can also be used to link our qualifications to a database of role models mapped to specifications.
Edith Stoney
Edith Stoney is considered the first woman to have been a medical physicist. She was born in Dublin in 1869. Her father was also an eminent physicist. As a talented mathematician, she gained a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge. She was not originally awarded a degree as women were excluded from graduation until 1948.
In 1899 Edith became a physics lecturer in the London School of Medicine for Women, setting up the laboratory and designing the course. Her sister, Florence, also joined the school as a medical electrician in 1901.
During World War I, Edith supported her sister in organising supplies for a radiological service with the Women’s Imperial Service League. Edith went on to plan and operate X-ray facilities for a Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH) tented hospital, in Sainte Savine, France and funded by the women’s colleges of Girton and Newnham. Here she established spectroscopy to localise bullets and shrapnel. She also introduced the use of X-rays for the diagnosis of gas gangrene.
After the evacuation of the town, the unit was sent to the Greek-Serbian border. Here Edith managed to re-establish a hospital with working lights and X-ray systems. She also developed an electrotherapy department and equipment to support muscular rehabilitation.
Edith later served in France in hospital units, including overseeing her third camp closure and retreat. After the war, Edith was recognised with awards from France, Serbia and Britain. She returned to physics lecturing at King’s College for Women. She also worked with the British Federation of University Women (BFUW) and supported women in science and engineering around the world. Edith died in 1938.
Medical physics, including X-rays, are part of Physics A (H556) topic 6.5.1 Using X-rays.
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner was born in 1878 in Vienna to Jewish parents. Her father was a lawyer and a chess master. As a child she was drawn to mathematics and science. Lise was initially unable to study in higher education due to the laws in Austria. This changed in 1897, allowing her to study and pass the examinations required to attend the University of Vienna. In 1905 she became only the second woman to receive a degree in Physics from the University.
The remarkable career of Lise Meitner continued in Germany, where she became Prussia’s first female scientific assistant. She served as an X-ray technician in World War I, in between her studies of radioactivity in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. Her work here led to her naming the element protactinium.
Lise fled Nazi Germany to Sweden in 1938. Here she worked with her nephew, Otto Frish, to describe fission. However, she declined an invite to work on the Manhattan project in the United States. In 1960 Lise retired to the UK and died in Cambridge in 1968. The element meitnerium was named in her honour.
As well as the further link to medical physics in Physics A (H556) 6.1, nuclear fission is covered in Physics A (H556) in topic 6.4.4 Nuclear fission and fusion, and in Physics B (H557) in 6.2.2 Ionising radiation and risk.
Chien-Shiung Wu
Chien-Shiung Wu was born in 1912 in a town called Liuhe in Jiangsu province, China. Her parents brought her up in an environment which valued education for women. She studied mathematics and physics at university. She went on to work as a research assistant before moving to the United States to study at Berkley. Here Wu continued to demonstrate skills as an experimental physicist. She particularly specialised in beta decay.
After completing her PhD in 1940, Wu worked first as an assistant professor at Smith College in Massachusetts before becoming the first female faculty member in the physics department of Princeton University, New Jersey.
In 1944 Wu joined the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the process for separating uranium-235 and uranium-238 isotopes. Wu’s findings in uranium separation were used to build the standard model for producing enriched uranium. She also developed radiation detectors and her PhD helped explain issues being experienced with the B reactor, the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor and a key part of the project.
Maria Göeppert Mayer was another prominent woman involved in the Manhattan Project. Like Chien-Shiung Wu, she worked on separating uranium isotopes but with a method impractical at the time. She went on to work on properties of matter and radiation at extremely high temperatures, linked to thermonuclear weapons. Göeppert went on to develop a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear shells, explaining why certain configurations of nucleons are particularly stable. This led to her receiving half of the Nobel prize for Physics in 1963 (with Hans Jensen).
After the war, Chien-Shiung Wu spent her career at Columbia. Here she became the first woman to be a tenured physics professor at the university. Her later achievements included establishing theory on beta decay and quantum entanglement. Her experiments proved Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang’s theories which won them a Nobel prize (though Wu was not nominated).
Wu become the first female president of the American Physical Association in 1975. In 1978 she was awarded the first Wolf Prize in Physics. She was also an advocate for human rights, as well as advancement of the sciences. She died in New York in 1997.
Beta decay is covered in Physics A (H556) in topic 6.4.2 Fundamental particles and 6.4.3 Radioactivity. In Physics B (H557) it is covered by 6.2.2 Ionising radiation and risk. Links can again be made to nuclear fission as well.
Fabiola Gianotti
Fabiola Gianotti was born in Rome in 1960. Her mother encouraged an interest in fine arts while her father was a geologist who encouraged scientific interests. She received a PhD in experimental particle physics from the University of Milan in 1989.
Gianotti has worked at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) since 1996, with a fellowship that led to becoming a full-time research physicist. In 2009 she became project leader and spokesperson for ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus). ATLAS is currently the largest particle detector experiment at CERN and involves around 6,000 members. The size of ATLAS allows observation of phenomena involving highly massive particles. ATLAS was involved in the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012.
Gianotti was appointed Director-General for CERN in 2016, and this was renewed for a second term in 2021. She is the first woman to have held this role and first person to be reappointed for a full second term. She was ranked fifth in Time magazine’s person of the year in 2012.
Particle physics can be linked to Physics A (H556) in topic 6.4.2 Fundamental particles and in Physics B in topic 6.2.1 Probing deep into matter.
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About the author
Mike joined OCR in January 2024 and is a subject advisor for A Level Physics. Mike completed an MA in Education at the University of Birmingham in 2014. Before joining OCR, he was a teacher for over 15 years, with roles included Acting Assistant Head, Head of Science, Physics Network Lead for a trust, a STEM Learning Facilitator and an SLE for Science. Mike is passionate about inclusion in education, environment and sustainability.
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