A Passion for Physics: The Story of a Woman Physicist

by Joan Freeman

Few research scientists write their autobiographies. Consequently, their motivations, aspirations, and the ways in which they operate are poorly understood by the outside world. Putting a human face to physics, A Passion for Physics: The Story of a Woman Physicist is a welcome addition to the small number of examples of its kind. As the author vividly describes, it was not easy for young women to acquire a broad scientific education, particularly before World War II in Australia, where she was born and grew up. Although their prospects are much better now than they were, women today still meet some discouragement in taking up physics as a career.

Beginning with an account of her early life, Dr. Freeman describes her struggles to gain a physics education, the vicissitudes of the Depression, her experiences at Sydney University, and her years in the wartime radar establishment in Sydney. The story continues with the tribulations and triumphs of the author's period at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, her meeting with physicist John Jelley whom she ultimately married, her transition to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, and her adventures in the United States. The book captures Dr. Freeman's sense of excitement and awe in gaining through her profession a fresh insight into the beauty, the intricacies, and the mystery of the physical world, and her admiration of the advances in understanding that have been achieved through continuing human endeavor.

Dr. Freeman's story provides an encouraging role model for aspiring young women physicists. Avoiding emphasis on technical aspects of physics, the book is a source of entertainment for the general reader, with its many, often humorous, anecdotes about the author and her contemporaries.

229 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Habiba Kabbaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It has always been to my considerable regret the first four years of my life are a complete blank; not a single moment of my western Australian existence can I recall. And yet the West has a particular fascination for me.” (Freeman. 1) The nuclear physicist, Joan Freeman, wrote her biography, A passion for physics and was published in 1991. As she was helping to reveal some of the universe’s greatest thoughts, she had to overcome one’s hardest challenge in life. Joan Freeman was born on January 7, 1918 and passed away on the 18th of march 1998. As one can see, Freeman was destined to be a dancer and her family had no interest for her to be a nuclear scientist. Throughout her autobiography, Freeman explains how she had to fight for what she wanted because a woman physicist was very unlikely back then. Indeed, as a child Freeman was always interested in how as well as why things work. But what turned her mind to physics was newscast that people have succeeded in splitting an atom. When she completed her honors degree in physics, Joan Freeman was part of a secret project, during world war II. It was the “Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's Radio physics Laboratory” where she and other physicists worked together to create a radar system, which would be used in Australia. In conclusion, Joan Freeman was able to help the audience improve their knowledge as well as telling her story and becoming a role model for every woman.


A passion for physics is a biography that would help people around the world that would like to have a career in science. It is the story of a woman in the 1930s that would like to be a part of the scientific world. This biography cannot only guide the audience towards success but it can also help find the reader’s true self. Throughout the biography it is shown that Joan Freeman study nuclear science that falls into the category known as physical science. Since “Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the constituents and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known application of nuclear physics is nuclear power”(dictionary) Nuclear physics has everything to do with atoms and matter as well as their constitution. Furthermore, it helps with an audience that has to prepare a science fair because throughout the book Freeman conducts many experiments and she explains with details what she sees and what she thinks of the experiment. Thus, Joan Freeman’s autobiography was able to help the audience in many ways and was able achieve many things in her eighty year life.



I recommend this book to students especially women. As this story mostly focuses on a women that tries to have career in science in the 1900s, which was very rare and almost impossible. It is a pleasant book that can motivate audience throughout the world and can help the reader get to the goal they want to. I also recommend this biography to students because it shows how education is important and how children around the world, that do not have the chance to attend school, are their dream. This biography was able to cheer, motivate, and make people achieve their goal in life because it is the story of a woman like no other. Conclusively, this autobiography was able to get people to goals they never thought they could get to and helped young women around the world have confidence.