Person
Bear, Isabel (Joy) (1927 - 2021)
AM FRACI
- Born
- 4 January 1927
Camperdown, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 8 April 2021
Barongarook Gardens, Colac, Victoria, Australia - Occupation
- Mineral chemist
- Alternative Names
- Bear, Joy (Also known as)
Summary
Joy Bear was a prominent researcher in the field of solid-state chemistry and metallurgy. She joined the Council for Scientific Research as a junior laboratory Assistant in 1944, was the first woman in CSIRO to be promoted to the research staff, and intimately retired as Senior Principal Research Scientist in 1992. This was a triumph over entrenched workplace practices that neither promoted women scientists nor recognised their research talents. In her research she discovered a number of previously unknown metastable zirconium sulfate hydrates. In particular she is noted for her chemical characterisation (in collaboration with Richard Thomas) and naming of "petrichor", a volatile oil that is associated with the smell of rain. Bear received a number of awards recognising her research: she was the first woman to receive the Leighton memorial Medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Her book Aluminia to zirconia: the history of the CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry, co-authored with T. Beigler and T. R. Scott, was published in 2005.
Details
Chronology
- 1944 - 1950
- Career position - Junior Laboratory Assistant, Minerals Utilization Section, CSIR(O) Division of Industrial Chemistry
- 1950
- Education - Associate Diploma of Applied Science, Melbourne Technical College
- 1950
- Education - Associate Diploma of Applied Chemistry, Melbourne Technical College
- 1950 - 1951
- Career position - Experimental Scientist at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, United Kingdom
- 1951 - 1953
- Career position - Research Assistant at University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 1953 - 1958
- Career position - Experimental Officer, Minerals Utilization Section, CSIRO Division of Industrial Chemistry
- 1958 - 1959
- Career position - Experimental Officer, CSIRO Minerals Utilization Section
- 1959 - 1967
- Career position - Experimental Officer, CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry
- 1967 - 1972
- Career position - Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry
- 1970
- Education - Diploma of Applied Chemistry, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
- 1972 - 1979
- Career position - Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry
- 1974 - 2021
- Award - Fellow, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
- 1978
- Education - Senior Doctoral Degree in Applied Science, Victoria Institute of Colleges
- 1979 - 1988
- Career position - Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry
- 1986
- Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of service to science, particularly in the field of mine chemistry
- 1986 - 2021
- Award - Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute
- 1988
- Award - Leighton Memorial Medal, Royal Australian Chemical Institute
- 1988 - 1992
- Career position - Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Mineral Products
- 1992
- Life event - Retired
- 1992 - 1997
- Career position - Honorary Fellow, CSIRO Division of Mineral Products (later Minerals Division)
- 2001
- Career event - Alumina to Zirconia (with Tom Beigler and Tom Scott) published by CSIRO
- 2005
- Award - Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women
Related entries
Colleague
Published resources
Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions
- McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details
Articles
- O'Neil, 'Isabel Joy Bear: a Biographical Note', WISENET Journal, 60 (July) (2002), http://www.wisenet-australia.org/issue60/isabel_bear.htm. Details
Books
- Bear, I. Joy.; Biegler, Tom; Scott, Tom. R., Alumina to zirconia: the history of CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry (Clayton, Victoria: CSIRO Minerals, 2001), 426 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/alumina-zirconia. Details
- Spurling, Heather; and Symington, David, Joy Bear (Blackburn, Vic.: Dove Communications, 1986), 8 pp. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/People-in-Science-Joy-Bear.pdf. Details
Journal Articles
- Bear, I. J.; and Thomas, R. G., 'Nature of argillaceous odour', Nature, 201 (1964), 993-5. https://doi.org/10.1038/201993a0. Details
- Bear, I. J.; and Thomas, R. G., 'Genesis of petrichor', Geochimica et cosmochimica acta, 30 (9) (1966), 869-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(66)90025-1. Details
- McNamara, Nicole; Kopinathan, Anitha; Wolff, Helen; Spurling, Thomas H.; Simpson, Gregory; and Locock, Katherine E. S., 'Breaking down barriers: standing on the shoulders of Australia's early female chemists', Australian journal of chemistry, 76 (2) (2023), 63-73. https://www.publish.csiro.au/CH/pdf/CH22235. Details
Resources
- 'Bear, Isabel Joy (1927-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1475847. Details
Resource Sections
- Poynton, H., 'The smell of rain: how CSIRO invented a new word', in The Conversation, The Conversation, 2015, https://theconversation.com/the-smell-of-rain-how-csiro-invented-a-new-word-39231. Details
- Ward, C., 'Isabel 'Joy' Bear', in CSIROpedia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 2021, https://csiropedia.csiro.au/Bear-Isabel-Joy/. Details
See also
Ailie Smith
Created: 10 February 2003, Last modified: 7 March 2023