Mary K. Gaillard

Mary Katharine Gaillard
Gaillard in 2015
Born
Ralph

April 1, 1939 (1939-04) (age 85)
New Brunswick, New Jersey[1]
Alma mater
Known forStandard Model
Spouses
Jean-Marc Gaillard
​
​
(m. 1961⁠–⁠1983)​
Bruno Zumino
​
(m. 1984⁠–⁠2014)​
Children3
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisorBernard d'Espagnat
Doctoral students
External videos
video icon “One woman’s journey in physics”, Mary K Gaillard, June 1, 2016, CERN.

Mary Katharine Gaillard (born April 1, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Her focus is on particle physics. She is a professor of the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, a member of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, and visiting scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She was Berkeley's first tenured female physicist.[2]

Her important contributions include prediction of the mass of the charm quark prior to its discovery (with B. W. Lee); prediction of 3-jet events (with J. Ellis and G.G. Ross); and prediction of b-quark mass (with M.S. Chanowitz and J. Ellis).[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Gaillard's autobiography is A Singularly Unfeminine Profession, published in 2015 by World Scientific.[9][10][11]

Early life

Mary Katharine Ralph was born April 1, 1939, in New Brunswick, New Jersey,[1] and grew up in Painesville, Ohio, where her father taught history at Lake Erie College.[12]

She attended Hollins College in Virginia as an undergraduate. Her physics professor, Dorothy Montgomery, helped her to find work in the Louis Leprince-Ringuet laboratory in France during a year abroad, and at Brookhaven National Labs in the summer.[12] She received her bachelor's degree from Hollins in 1960. She received her master's degree from Columbia University in 1961.[13]

At the end of her first year at Columbia she married Jean-Marc Gaillard, a visiting physics postdoctoral student. She moved with him, first to the University of Paris at Orsay, France and a year later to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. Despite experiencing sexism and having three children, she continued to study theoretical physics.[1][12] In 1964 she obtained her Doctorat du Troisième Cycle from the University of Paris at Orsay, France. In 1968, she completed her Doctorat d'Etat in Theoretical Physics there.[13]

Career

During her time at CERN (1964-1981)[13] Gaillard was considered a visiting scientist, first as a student from Orsay, and later as a research scientist employed by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).[1][12] At one point, she carried out and submitted a survey of women scientists at CERN, documenting clear patterns of blatant sexism against women scientists in hiring and salaries.[1]

Nonetheless, her scientific achievements at CERN led to her advancement at CNRS.[1] In 1979 Gaillard established a particle theory group at the Laboratoire d'Annecy-le-Vieux de physique des particules (LAPP), Annecy-le-Vieux, France. She directed the group from 1979 to 1981. She served as director of research at Annecy-le-Vieux for the CNRS from 1980 to 1981.[13] In 1981, the Gaillards divorced, and she returned to the United States.[1][12]

Gaillard joined the physics department at the Berkeley in 1981,[13] becoming the first woman professor of physics.[1] She was concurrently a faculty senior staff member at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), where she headed the Theory Group from 1985 to 1987.[13]

Gaillard served on several committees of the American Physical Society, advisory panels for the Department of Energy and the United States National Research Council, and on advisory and visiting committees at universities and national laboratories. She was a member of the National Science Board from 1996 to 2002.[13]

Research

Her research accomplishments include pioneering work with Benjamin W. Lee on the evaluation of strong interaction corrections to weak transitions, including the successful prediction of the mass of the charm quark; work with John Ellis and others on the analysis of final states in electron-positron collisions, including the prediction of Three-jet events, and studies of unified gauge theories, including the prediction of the bottom quark mass; studies with Michael Chanowitz of signatures at proton-proton colliders which showed, on very general grounds, that new physics must show up at sufficiently high energies. Her later work focused on effective supergravity theories based on superstrings, and their implications for phenomena that may be detected both in accelerator experiments and cosmological observations.[1][12][2][3][4]

Awards and honors

Personal life

She married Jean Marc Gaillard with whom she had three children - Alain, Dominique and Bruno. Later, she married Bruno Zumino.[1][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hargittai, Magdolna (2015). "Mary Gaillard: theoretical physicist". Women scientists : reflections, challenges, and breaking boundaries. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-935998-1. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Gibson, Val (August 2015). "Physics: She did it all". Nature. 524 (7564): 160. Bibcode:2015Natur.524..160G. doi:10.1038/524160a. S2CID 4389262.
  3. ^ a b c Oakes, Elizabeth H. (2007). Encyclopedia of World Scientists. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1882-6. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b Maiani, Luciano; Bonolis, Luisa (December 2017). "The Charm of Theoretical Physics (1958–1993)" (PDF). The European Physical Journal H. 42 (4–5): 611–661. arXiv:1707.01833. Bibcode:2017EPJH...42..611M. doi:10.1140/epjh/e2017-80040-9. S2CID 119365093. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  5. ^ Gaillard, Mary K.; Lee, Benjamin W.; Rosner, Jonathan L. (1 April 1975). "Search for charm". Reviews of Modern Physics. 47 (2): 277–310. Bibcode:1975RvMP...47..277G. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.47.277. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  6. ^ Ali, A.; Kramer, G. (2011). "JETS and QCD: A historical review of the discovery of the quark and gluon jets and its impact on QCD". European Physical Journal H. 36 (2): 245–326. arXiv:1012.2288. Bibcode:2011EPJH...36..245A. doi:10.1140/epjh/e2011-10047-1. S2CID 54062126.
  7. ^ Ellis, John; Gaillard, Mary K.; Nanopoulos, Dimitri V. (31 January 2012). "A Historical Profile of the Higgs Boson". The Standard Theory of Particle Physics. Advanced Series on Directions in High Energy Physics. Vol. 26. pp. 255–274. doi:10.1142/9789814733519_0014. ISBN 978-981-4733-50-2. S2CID 35488065. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  8. ^ Ellis, John (September 16, 2014). "The Discovery of the Gluon". World Scientific Review. 29 (31). arXiv:1409.4232. Bibcode:2014IJMPA..2930072E. doi:10.1142/S0217751X14300725. S2CID 119255094.
  9. ^ Gaillard, Mary K. (2015). A Singularly Unfeminine Profession: One Woman's Journey In Physics. World Scientific. ISBN 9789814644242. ebook ISBN 978-981-4644-22-8; pbk ISBN 978-981-4713-22-1
  10. ^ Glazer, Amanda (December 4, 2019). "Perseverance, Brilliance and Charm: An Interview With Mary Gaillard". Berkeley Science Review. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  11. ^ Gavela, M. Belén (2016). "Review of A Singularly Unfeminine Profession: One Woman's Journey in Physics". Physics Today. 69 (2): 50–51. doi:10.1063/PT.3.3084.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Gaillard, Mary K. (21 September 2021). "Adventures with Particles". Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. 71 (1): 1–21. Bibcode:2021ARNPS..71....1G. doi:10.1146/annurev-nucl-111119-053716. ISSN 0163-8998. S2CID 239237288.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g "Gaillard, Mary K." American Institute of Physics. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  14. ^ "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. Retrieved 26 January 2022. (search on year 1984 and institution University of California, Berkeley)
  15. ^ "Mary K. Gaillard, 1988". U. S. Department of Energy. 28 December 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  16. ^ "Professor Mary Katharine Ralph Gaillard". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  17. ^ "PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES THREE MEMBERS TO THE NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD". THE WHITE HOUSE. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  18. ^ "1993 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics Recipient Mary K. Gaillard". American Physical Society. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  19. ^ "Members elected in 2000". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 144 (4). American Philosophical Society: 494. 2000. ISBN 978-1-4223-7274-6. Retrieved 26 January 2022.