Madeleine Barnothy Forro (Hungarian: Barnóthy Forró Magdolna; August 21, 1904 – February 1995) was a Hungarian-American physicist and astrophysicist. Her work included research on cosmic ray physics, gravitational lensing, and the biophysics of magnetic fields.
Madeleine Barnothy Forro | |
|---|---|
Barnóthy Forró Magdolna | |
| Born | August 21, 1904 |
| Died | February 1995 (aged 90) Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Royal Hungarian University (PhD) |
| Spouse |
Jeno M. Barnothy (m. 1938) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions |
|
Life and career
editMadeleine Forro was born in the village of Zsámbok, Hungary, on August 21, 1904, to Margit (née Somlo) and Robert Forro.[1][2] She was awarded a doctorate in physics in 1927 from the Royal Hungarian University in Budapest for work measuring dielectric constants.[3] Forro was the first woman to earn a doctorate in physics at the university.[4][1] She then lectured at the university and undertook research on cosmic rays. She was appointed an associate professor in 1936. In 1938 she married her colleague, Jeno M. Barnothy.[2][3] Her research in the late 1930s observing cosmic rays, helped to reveal the nature of electrons, pions and muons.[3]
The Barnothys struggled to reestablish cosmic ray research after the Second World War and in 1948 they emigrated to the United States, with Forro taking a professorship at Barat College, Illinois.[3][2] In 1953 she began working as a research associate at Northwestern University.[2] She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1954.[2] In 1955 she began working for the University of Illinois, becoming a professor of physics in 1964.[2]
In the 1960s Forro researched the biological effects of strong magnetic fields.[3] In the 1960s and 1970s she co-authored about 40 papers with Barnothy on the effects of gravitational lensing on quasars.[5] They proposed that quasars are amplified images of Seyfert galaxies due to gravitational lensing, which has since been shown to be the case for a small fraction of quasars.[3]
Madeleine Forro was active in many professional organizations ranging from the American Astronomical Society and the American Physical Society to the German Astronomical Society and International Astronomical Union.[5]
Forro died in February 1995 in Evanston, Illinois at the age of 90.[5][6][7]
Publications
edit- Barnothy, Madeleine F. (1964). Biological Effects of Magnetic Fields. Vol. 1. New York: Plenum Press.
- —————————— (1969). Biological Effects of Magnetic Fields. Vol. 2. New York: Plenum Press.
References
edit- ^ a b "Outstanding Scientist Booked for AAUW Talk". The South Bend Tribune. South Bend, IN. January 8, 1956. p. 50 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). "Barnothy, Madeleine (Forro) (b. 1904)". The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. New York: Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-415-92038-4 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b c d e f Trimble, Virginia (2014). "Barnothy Forro, Madeleine". In Hockey, Thomas; et al. (eds.). Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 166–167. Bibcode:2014bea..book..166T. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_115. ISBN 978-1-4419-9916-0. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
- ^ "Women "Firsts" in Hungary". Journal of the American Association of University Women. 49 (1). American Association of University Women: 68. October 1955 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b c Fenyves, Ervin J.; Somogyi, Antal (December 1, 1995). "Obituary: Madeleine Barnothy Forro, 1904–1995". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 27 (4): 1475. Bibcode:1995BAAS...27.1475F.
- ^ "Death Notices: Barnothy". Chicago Tribune. February 21, 1995. p. 127 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Trimble, Virginia; Leonard, Peter J. T. (1996). "Astrophysics in 1995". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 108 (719): 8–34. Bibcode:1996PASP..108....8T. doi:10.1086/133687. ISSN 0004-6280. JSTOR 40680679. S2CID 120630150.