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Why do so many scientists who happened to be women, disappear from history?

2019 is the centenary year for remembering the boffin work of women mathematicians, chemists and engineers in WWI, but 2045 is too long to wait to celebrate the life and work of one extraordinary woman scientist who, caught up in WWII in the Far East, changed thinking in two separate sciences, geology and radar physics.

Rocks, Radio and Radar builds on a wide range of records in both sciences and in the little-known history of WWII radars in the South Pacific, to record the life and work of Elizabeth Alexander. As a geologist, her experience of war began in Singapore where, having temporarily set aside her research, she began working in radio direction finding for the Royal Navy. Following the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1942, she was ordered to take her 3 children to the safety of New Zealand and return herself to Singapore but, overtaken by the speed of the fall of Singapore, she was stranded in New Zealand.

However, her work was already known there through the existing naval contacts between Singapore and New Zealand and she was invited set up and run the Operations Research Section of New Zealand's Radio Development Lab, the cover name for radar as distinct from radio direction finding. With responsibility for monitoring the performance of New-Zealand made radars across the South Pacific Command, she made, in passing, the interpretation of an anomalous signal picked up by New Zealand radar operators, which was to become the beginning of radio astronomy in Australia. At the end of the war, she returned to Singapore and geology, to complete the first survey of the island as part of her commissioned work in rebuilding both Singapore's physical infrastructures and first university. She died in Nigeria in 1958, just days before her 50th birthday, still doing geological research in tropical weathering. Her posthumously published work on the previously unrecognised speed of re-deposition of minerals eroded from tropical soils, is currently significant in geological research related to global warming.

Rocks, Radio and Radar is a unique account of a unique scientist, whose work cannot be categorised in a single keyword. Her temporary disappearance from history has many causes, not least her care for her husband who, interned in Singapore from 1942 - 1945, suffered the consequences of starvation and deprivation, relying on her as she placed her own life and work secondary to his, for rebuilding his health and work towards a distinguished career, for which he was recognised by honours, never given to her.

To order or find out more about Rocks, Radio and Radar, visit https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/Q0198 .

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About the Author

Mary Harris née Alexander, born in Singapore in 1939, was evacuated to New Zealand in 1942, eventually arriving in England in 1947. She attended Oxford High School then University College Ibadan Nigeria, where she read for the London University BSc. Following the death of her mother in her final year and unable to complete her degree when her father remarried, she returned to England.

She married in 1960, and inspired by her daughter's learning disabilities, she took a London University B.Ed., taught and did curriculum research in special then mainstream mathematics education. Her work constantly interrupted by the needs of her daughter, her son and her husband, who had been a Far East prisoner-of-war, she was unable to complete her PhD but continued to develop her career in mathematics education at the University of London Institute of Education until her retirement.

For many years she has been an active member of 3 charities which research the lives of individuals caught up in the fall of Singapore in 1942 and its aftermath. In her rare leisure time, she continues to pursue a life-long interest in archaeology and ancient history of Africa and the Middle and Far East. Her professional research and publications are mainly concerned with mathematics in everyday life, particularly the unacknowledged mathematical content of the traditional work of women. She lives in North Kensington in London, deeply embedded in her community at the foot of Grenfell Tower.

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About World Scientific Publishing Co.

World Scientific Publishing is a leading independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research, professional and educational communities. The company publishes about 600 books annually and about 140 journals in various fields. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit www.worldscientific.com.