Nothing Less Than An Adventure:: Ellen Gleditsch and Her Life in Science

In 1907, a young woman named Ellen Gleditsch left her job as a laboratory technician at Oslo University to study radiochemistry with Marie Curie in Paris. During her five years there, Ellen fell in love with France and its people. Her experience at the Curie laboratory convinced her that she wanted to spend her life in science. When back at her home university, she continued her studies at Yale University. She conquered many obstacles that would have discouraged a less determined woman from pursuing her goals, and was eventually appointed professor in Oslo. Despite the illnesses that plagued many of the pioneers of radioactivity research, she lived a long and rich life, finally succumbing to a stroke at the age of eighty-eight. Her childhood in the beautiful Norwegian countryside left her with a sense of awe and wonder of the natural world. As a young scientist, she struggled against rules that barred women from access to universities and used her sense of humor to deal with male colleagues who could see no role for women other than as potential wives and mothers. Her scientific contributions were broad. The International Federation of University Women recognized her superb leadership skills and chose her as its president in the late 1920s. She was a prolific writer and her many biographical sketches of famous scientists include several essays about the Curie family. This biography makes use of material not available in English and draws on original interviews by the author with relatives and students of Gleditsch, one of whom herself spent a year at the Curie laboratory. In the interview, she vividly describes her encounters with the famous scientist, giving new insights into Curie as a mentor and role model. In closing, the author looks at the choices that women scientists of Gleditsch's and her students' generations were faced with, and makes a comparison with the experiences of women scientists of today.