Jenny Rosenthal Bramley
{{short description|Russian-born American physicist 1909–1997) }}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Jenny Rosenthal Bramley
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| image = File:Portrait of Jenny Rosenthal Bramley.jpg
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|07|31}}
| birth_place = Moscow, Russia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1997|05|26|1909|07|31}}
| death_place = Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
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| nationality = Russian
| fields = Physics
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| known_for = First woman to earn Ph.D in physics from an American institution
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Jenny Rosenthal Bramley (July 31, 1909 – May 26, 1997) was a Russian-born American physicist. She held numerous patents on electroluminescence and electro-optics, and was cited by the IEEE as being "well known for her innovative work in lasers." She was the second woman elected as a fellow of the IEEE.{{cite web |date= |title=Jenny Rosenthal Bramley – GHN: IEEE Global History Network |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Jenny_Rosenthal_Bramley |access-date=2014-02-17 |publisher=Ieeeghn.org}}
Personal life
Bramley was born Jenny Rosenthal in Moscow on July 31, 1909.{{cite web|title=Dr. Jenny Rosenthal Bramley|url=http://cecomhistorian.armylive.dodlive.mil/2011/01/05/dr-jenny-rosenthal-bramley/|website=CECOM Historical Office|publisher=U.S. Army Live Blog|access-date=17 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302042128/http://cecomhistorian.armylive.dodlive.mil/2011/01/05/dr-jenny-rosenthal-bramley/|archive-date=2 March 2013|url-status=dead}} Her parents were Litvak, and she and her family left Russia as part of a hostage exchange between Lithuania and the Soviet Union. She attended high school in Berlin and earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Paris in 1926 at age 16.{{cite news |title=Careers in Technology Open to Women, Says Dr. Bramley |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-jenny-rosenthal-bramley/133690023/ |work=The Herald-News |date=May 13, 1957 |location=Passaic, NJ |page=18 |access-date=October 19, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|title=Jenny Bramley, 87, Physicist and Inventor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/02/us/jenny-bramley-87-physicist-and-inventor.html|access-date=17 June 2014|work=New York Times|date=2 June 1997}}
She spoke English, Russian, French, and German, and she used her language skills many times at professional meetings and to translate technical articles.
Bramley received both a master's degree in 1927 and a doctorate in 1929 at age 19 from New York University (NYU). University officials at NYU claim she became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from an American institution. However, three women (Mary Chilton Noyes, Caroline Willard Baldwin, and Isabelle Stone) were awarded doctorates in physics from American institutions in the nineteenth century,{{Cite journal |last=Eells |first=Walter Crosby |date=1956 |title=Earned Doctorates for Women in the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40222081 |journal=AAUP Bulletin |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=644–651 |doi=10.2307/40222081 |jstor=40222081 |issn=0001-026X}} and evidence suggests at least 26 women earned doctorates in physics before 1929.{{Cite web |date=2014-02-03 |title=IEEE Northern Virginia Section |url=http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/no_virginia/77chair.html |access-date=2022-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203142449/http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r2/no_virginia/77chair.html |archive-date=2014-02-03 }}
Bramley met her husband, Arthur Bramley, while working as a physicist at the United States Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratory in Belmar, NJ. She died on May 26, 1997, at age 87 in Lancaster, PA,{{cite news |title=Bramley |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/lancaster-new-era-jenny-rosenthal-bramle/133634930/ |work=Lancaster New Era |date=May 28, 1997 |location=Lancaster, PA |page=12 |access-date=October 18, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} and was survived by a daughter, son, eleven grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. She was preceded in death by her husband and one son.
Career
After graduating from New York University Bramley did research at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan before teaching at Brooklyn College and New York University.{{cite news|title=Bramley was first woman to receive Ph.D in physics|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19970603&id=xSkhAAAAIBAJ&pg=1705,3986730|access-date=17 June 2014|work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|date=June 3, 1997}}
Along with Gregory Breit, Bramley was the first to calculate the effect of extended nuclear charge on hyperfine structure and isotopic shift – an effect still known as the Breit–Rosenthal correction.{{cite book|last1=Stroke|first1=Henry|title=Advances in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Volume 51|date=2005|publisher=Gulf Professional Publishing|isbn=0-08-045608-1|pages=275–276|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmSWai2GgjIC&q=Jenny+Rosenthal+Bramley&pg=PA275|access-date=17 June 2014}} She contributed to a number of other fields including applying electroluminescence to solid state displays and storage devices and developing high efficiency lasers. Bramley also invented coding techniques and methods of decoding pictorial information, later used in classified studies.{{cite book|editor1=Commire, Anne|editor2=Klezmer, Deborah|editor3=Gale Editorial Collaboration|title=Dictionary of Women Worldwide|date=2005|publisher=Cengage Gale (via HighBeam)|isbn=0-7876-7585-7|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588803173.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220082414/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588803173.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-12-20|access-date=17 June 2014}}
During World War II Bramley conducted some research in secret which she was unable to publish at the time.{{cite journal|journal=American Association of University Women|date=1942|volume=36-37|quote=My work is secret in nature. After the war I hope to be able to publish some of it. |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-ggVAAAAIAAJ&q=Jenny+Rosenthal+Bramley |access-date= June 17, 2014 |title= AAUW Journal, Volumes 36-37}} In the 1950s she worked at Monmouth Junior College, where she served as head of the mathematics department.{{cite book|author1=Gabriele Kass-Simon |author2=Patricia Farnes |author3=Deborah Nash |title=Women of Science: Righting the Record|date=1993|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-20813-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenofsciencer000kass/page/180 180]|url=https://archive.org/details/womenofsciencer000kass|url-access=registration |quote=Jenny Rosenthal Bramley. |access-date=17 June 2014}}
Honors and awards
- Sarah Berliner Research Fellow, American Association of University Women
- Fellow, American Physical Society{{cite web|title=APS Fellow Archive|website=American Physical Society|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=1936&unit_id=&institution=Columbia+University}} (search on year=1936 and institution=Columbia University)
- Fellow, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers{{cite news |title=Social News from Nutley |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-jenny-rosenthal-bramley/133689813/ |work=The Herald-News |date=April 12, 1966 |location=Passaic, NJ |page=7 |access-date=October 19, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}
- Wise Lifetime Achievement Award 1985, The InterAgency Committee on Women in Science and Engineering; cited as the most outstanding woman scientist in the federal government.
- Fellow, Washington Academy of Science
Legacy
In 1997, New York University named a physics laboratory in honor of Bramley.{{cite news |last1=Brubaker |first1=Jack |title=Telephone Directory Features More Lawyers and Yellow Pages than Ever |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/lancaster-new-era-jenny-rosenthal-bramle/133635146/ |work=Lancaster New Era |date=October 14, 1997 |location=Lancaster, PA |page=12 |access-date=October 18, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite web |title=Jenny Rosenthal Bramley |url=https://physics.nyu.edu/alumni/Doctoral/bramley.jenny.html |website=NYU Department of Physics |access-date=October 18, 2023}}
References
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Category:American women physicists
Category:Russian emigrants to Germany
Category:University of Paris alumni
Category:New York University alumni
Category:University of Michigan fellows
Category:20th-century American physicists
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:Monmouth University faculty
Category:Brooklyn College faculty