Jadwiga Ryszardowna Szmidt (; 8 September 1889 – April 1940) was a Polish-Russian physicist. She conducted pioneering research in the fields of optical engineering, radiology, radioactivity and electrical engineering.
Early life and education Jadwiga Ryszardowna Schmidt was born in Łódź on 8 September 1889, the daughter of Ryszard Schmidt. At the time of her birth, the city was under the control of the Russian Empire, but her family were of Polish descent. They were also Protestants. She undertook her early education in Warsaw, and between 1905 and 1909 studied at the Women’s Pedagogical Institute in St Petersburg, a teacher-training college now part of Herzen University.
Career
After graduating, Schmidt worked as a physics teacher at the Tagantsev Girls’ Gymnasium, a school for upper class girls in Saint Petersburg. She ran laboratory sessions as well as theoretical lessons for her pupils. During this time, Szmidt was part of a group of physicists who regularly organised meetings. Among them were Paul Ehrenfest, Abram Ioffe, Dimitri Rozhdestvensky and Tatyana Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa. She also attended lectures on optics given by Russian physicist and engineer Alexander Lvovich Gershun.
In 1911, Szmidt left for a six-month training course at the Sorbonne in Paris. Thanks to the intercession of the physicist Jan Kazimierz Danysz (she held a teaching diploma rather than a bachelor’s degree), Schmidt was able to take up a position in Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s laboratory during her time in Paris. She collaborated with the Norwegian physicist Ellen Gleditsch, the British chemist May Sybil Leslie and Swedish physicist Eva Ramstedt during her time there. She remained friends with Leslie and Gleditsch for many years.
On her return to Saint Petersburg, Szmidt initially resumed her role as a teacher. At the same time, she began her own research under the supervision of Gerschun. From 1913 to 1914, she studied at the University of Manchester and worked in Ernest Rutherford’s laboratory. She published two papers in the Philosophical Magazine on the basis of radioactivity research she conducted under Rutherford. Her research included the energy relationship between soft and hard gamma radiation emitted by radium decay products. Whilst working alone in the laboratory in Manchester, she suffered severe poisoning when she opened a container believed to contain either sulphur dioxide or carbon dioxide. Sources differ on the nature of the container and the chemical it contained, but it was considered lucky that she survived and did not die from the chemical exposure.
Szmidt confided in Gleditsch when she visited that she did not feel that she could settle in Britain, but found her time there doing research to be very valuable. Leslie, then working in Liverpool, also visited her in Manchester.
Szmidt returned to Saint Petersburg, via Oslo where she stayed with Gledisch. She studied at Saint Petersburg State University from 1915 to 1916. During World War I, she looked after refugees and organised Polish-language schools. She wrote to her former mentor Ernest Rutherford that her care duties stopped her from undertaking research and mentioned concerns about her ill health, although she was more upbeat in other letters, particularly when she reported that she had passed her final examinations and would be able to apply for her degree once she presented an original research problem in the field of mathematics, physics or astronomy.
She joined the newly founded Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, undertaking research under physicist Abram Ioffe. Ioffe wrote to his wife that "I am very pleased with Jadwiga […]. She has a broad knowledge, good problem-solving skills, and also demonstrates exceptional laboratory skills". In 1918 Ioffe and others founded the X-ray and Radiological Institute. Ioffe became the long-standing director of the institute, which was renamed the Ioffe Institute after his death. Szmidt played a key role in the organisation of the institute. She oversaw the students’ activities in the institute's Laboratory of Experimental Physics, and taught courses on radioactivity. At the same time, Szmidt took a particular interest in X-ray physics, preparing specialized monochromatic X-ray filters.
Following her marriage to the deputy director of the institute, A. A. Chernichev, Szmidt began working in electrical engineering, her husband’s field of specialisation. Together, they worked on the precursors to television technology and were granted a patent for an oscilloscope.
From 1924, Szmidt was a head of department at the institute.
She spoke six languages, which she used to translate a number of scientific works into Russian.
Personal life In 1923, Szmidt married her colleague A. A. Chernichev.
In 1938, her husband Chernichev had to move to Moscow for work. Szmidt remained in Leningrad, and the couple were only able to keep in touch by post.
Jadwiga Szmidt fell seriously ill and died in Leningrad in April 1940, the same month her husband died in Moscow.
See also List of women associated with Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie
References