Jane Dewey:A woman in the ‘lucky generation’ of physicists in the United States (1925-1933)

Jane Dewey (1900-1976) was the only woman in what physicist John Slater named ‘The lucky generation’ of physicists in the United States. This generation was characterized by being born around the beginning of the 20^th century, getting training in physics just at the time of definition of the quantum theory, and having the opportunity to spend some years in Europe, learning and doing research with the most famous physicists of the time. That was the case for Jane Dewey, who after completing her PhD in science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925, spent two years in Copenhagen working in the laboratory of Niels Bohr. There, she developed experimental research regarding the Stark effect on Helium, which for some scholars meant a pioneering work in the field of quantum optics that she promoted when back in the US. Her bosses, Duncan MacInnes, Niels Bohr and Karl Compton, appreciated her unusual abilities for research, as well as her merits. However, her career was less brilliant than the rest of her generation. Like many other women scientists of the time, she had to manage the obstacles of finding a job position allowing doing scientific research and the strain of creating a family life. She finally got divorced and lost her job around 1933. Thus, she left behind her relevant and promising experimental research track in quantum physics. This paper will reconsider her contribution to the development of experimental quantum physics as part of ‘the lucky generation’.