Margaret Maltby

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Margaret Eliza Maltby

Margaret Eliza Maltby (born December 10, 1860 in Bristolville, Ohio , USA; † May 3, 1944 in New York City ) was an American physical chemist and suffragette .

Life

Margaret Maltby was the daughter of the landowner Edmund Maltby and Lydia J. Maltby, née Brockway. After school she studied at Oberlin College in Ohio, where she did her Bachelor of Arts in 1882 . She then studied natural sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston , where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1891 . During this time she taught in schools in Ohio and Massachusetts .

In order to continue her physical research work, she decided to go to Germany, where from 1893 she worked with Eduard Riecke and Walther Hermann Nernst at the University of Göttingen . In 1895 she was the first woman to receive a doctorate from the University of Göttingen with a dissertation on the method for determining large electrolytic resistances . Then Maltby moved on to Berlin , where she became the scientific assistant to Friedrich Wilhelm Kohlrausch at the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

In 1900 she returned to the US and began her teaching at Barnard College of Columbia University , a college exclusively for women. She taught at Barnard College for 31 years. In 1903 she became associate professor, in 1910 junior professor and in 1913 full professor and chairwoman of the physics department. Her administrative work at college left her with less and less time for academic research. In 1931 she stopped teaching. She died in 1944.

Margaret Maltby was a passionate suffragette and committed her entire life to promoting equality for women in studies and at work, especially in the natural sciences. She encouraged her students not to choose either to study or to have a family, but rather to combine both. As a longstanding executive member of the American Association of University Women , she also tried to make her concerns heard at the political level. In this function, she initiated a scholarship program for female students in 1926.

Publications

  • Method for the determination of large electrolytic resistances , (doctoral thesis), Göttingen, 1895
  • A Few Points of Comparison between German and American Universities , New York, 1896
  • Method for determining the period of electrical oscillations , Berlin, 1897
  • The electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions of alkali chlorides and nitrates , (with F. Kohlrausch), Berlin, 1899
  • The Relation of Physics and Chemistry to the College Science Courses , New York, 1915
  • History of Fellowships Awarded by the American Association of University Women, 1888-1929 , New York, 1929.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Maltby, Margaret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maltby, Margaret Eliza
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physical chemist and suffragette
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Bristolville, Ohio , USA
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1944
Place of death New York City