Helen Megaw: Difference between revisions

| alma_mater = [[Queen's University, Belfast]], [[Girton College, Cambridge|Girton College]]

Megaw was born in Dublin to mathematics teacher Annie McElderry (1874-1968) from Ballymoney, Antrim, and judge and politician [[Robert Megaw]], two graduates of Queen's University Belfast who were both originally from Ballymoney, Antrim.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glazer |first=Mike |date=2021 |title=Helen D. Megaw (1907–2002) and Her Contributions to Ferroelectrics |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9336355/ |journal=IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control |volume=68 |issue=2 |pages=334–338 |doi=10.1109/TUFFC.2020.3035268 |issn=0885-3010|doi-access=free }}</ref> She was educated at first at Alexandra College in Dublin, and then briefly at Methodist College in Belfast after the family (including younger brother [[RoedeanJohn SchoolMegaw|John]], later a leading judge) moved back there in 1921, and finally at the [[Roedean School]] in DublinEngland.<ref>[https://history.amercrystalassn.org/biography---megaw Helen Megaw] by Mike Glazer, [[American Crystallographic Association]], 2018</ref> While still at school, Megaw read Bragg's ''X-rays and Crystal Structure.''<ref name="ulsterbio" /> She spent a year at [[Queen's University, Belfast]]<ref name="ulsterbio" /> before moving to [[Girton College, Cambridge|Girton College]], Cambridge to study Natural Sciences in 1926. She graduated in 1930 and was a research student in crystallography under [[J. D. Bernal]].<ref name = "ulsterbio"/> Megaw's first speciality was the structure of ice, and she was awarded her PhD in 1934,<ref name = "papers">''[http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0271%2FGCPP%20Megaw Personal papers of Helen Megaw]''</ref> and Girton awarded her a [[Hertha Ayrton]] research scholarship which she used to study in Vienna in 1934-1935 under [[Herman Francis Mark|Hermann Francis Mark]]. In 1935 Megaw co-published with Bernal an influential method for fixing the position of hydrogen atoms known as the Bernal-Megaw model.<ref name="ulsterbio" /> She spent the year 1935–1936 in Oxford with [[Francis Simon]]<ref name="ulsterbio" /> and then spent several years as a schoolteacher before becoming an industrial crystallographer with [[Philips|Philips Lamps]] in London in 1943. It was through work at Philips on [[barium titanate]] that Megaw first worked on the [[Perovskite (structure)|perovskite]] crystal structure, on which she established herself as an acknowledged expert.<ref name="ulsterbio" /> In 1945 Megaw returned to working with Bernal, now at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College in London]], for a year before taking a post at the [[Cavendish Laboratory|Cavendish]] Laboratory in Cambridge. She became a Fellow and Director of Studies at Girton. Megaw retired in 1972 and divided her time between Cambridge and [[Ballycastle, County Antrim|Ballycastle]], [[County Antrim]], where she died in 2002.<ref name="ulsterbio" />

* {{Cite book |last=Megaw |first=Helen D |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ferroelectricity-in-crystals/oclc/2226235 |title=Ferroelectricity in crystals |date=1957 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |language=English |oclc=2226235}}