Anna McPherson

Anna Isobel McPherson (1901–1979) was a Canadian physicist and the first female professor in the Department of Physics at McGill University.

Early life and education McPherson received a B.A. degree in Mathematics and Physics with First Class Honors from McGill University in 1921. There she received the Anne Molson Gold Medal for excellence, awarded to the best student in physics, mathematics, and physical science at McGill.

In 1923, McPherson received a M.Sc. from McGill, under the supervision of Arthur Eve.

She then taught mathematics at a high school in Montreal, before moving to Chicago to begin a doctorate degree with A.J. Dempster at the University of Chicago. There she worked to analyze the spectrum of electrical discharges in gasses. She received a PhD 1933.

Career After finishing her graduate studies, she returned to Montreal and repeatedly applied to and was rejected for a teaching position at McGill. She was eventually hired as a part-time demonstrator at the university in 1940. The small observatory on the roof of the Ernest Rutherford Physics Building is also named in her honour.