Edna Carter

Edna Carter (January 28, 1872 - May 14, 1963) was an American physicist born in High Cliff, Wisconsin. Carter graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1894. Carter's work on the properties of X-rays laid the foundations for Max von Laue's discovery of the wave-like properties of X-rays, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1914. Carter continued her work in the physics department under Professor J. J. Thomson at the University of Cambridge, as well as in Professor Wilhelm Wien's laboratory of Würzburg, Germany. Between the years of 1919 to 1939, Carter served as chairman of the Vassar College Physics Department. In 1941, she organized the Physics Department at Albertus Magnus College and was a professor there for two years. During 1943 and 1944, she was involved in defense work for the Federal government of the United States at the California Institute of Technology.

Retirement Carter officially retired at the age of 73 after her work on rockets used in war at the California Institute of Technology. She died at the age of 91 in 1963.