Daphne Jackson

Daphne Frances Jackson (23 September 1936 – 8 February 1991) was an English nuclear physicist. In 1971 she became the first female physics professor in the UK. A legacy after her death in 1991 enabled the foundation of the Daphne Jackson Trust.

Biography Daphne Frances Jackson was born in Peterborough; her father was a machine tool operator and her mother had been a textile designer before she married. Jackson went to the local grammar school, Peterborough County Grammar School for Girls, from where she was able to apply to take physics at Imperial College in London. She was one of only two female students on the course alongside 88 males.

Jackson moved to what is now called the University of Surrey at the invitation of Lewis Elton to study nuclear physics when he became head of the physics department at Battersea College of Advanced Technology. She became a lecturer and she was awarded a doctorate in 1962. She was vice-president of the Institute of Physics, after being its youngest ever fellow. Qualified women who are unemployed or under-employed following a career break for family commitments represent an appalling waste of talent and of investment in their initial education. Many such women are eager to return to their original careers or to a new field of activity for which their initial education is relevant, provided that retraining can be given and that they can, at least initially, work on a part-time basis.

Legacy

The Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize, established in 2016 and named in Jackson's honour, are awarded by the Institute of Physics "for exceptional early career contributions to physics education and to widening participation within it".

The Daphne Jackson Trust was founded in 1992, under her legacy, in order to aid many talented individuals return to their chosen careers after having a family or inevitably pausing their career. The Trust had enabled over 370 STEM researchers to go back to their chosen careers/fields by 2019 and awarded their 500th fellowship in 2024.

In 2020, a blue plaque was unveiled in her memory on the site of her former school, the County Grammar School in Peterborough, by the local Civic Society at the suggestion of her brother Ron.