Isabelle Stone

Isabelle Stone (October 18, 1868 – 1966) was an American physicist and educator. She was one of the founders of the American Physical Society. She was among the first women to earn a PhD in physics in the United States.

Early life and education Stone was born in 1868 to Harriet H. Leonard Stone and Leander Stone in Chicago. Her father was an editor of the Chicago Times, and her mother was the president of the Chicago YWCA and a charter member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Stone completed a bachelor's degree at Wellesley College in 1890. Stone was the first woman to earn a PhD in physics at the University of Chicago. She was also among the first women to earn a PhD in physics in the United States, earning hers just two years after Caroline Willard Baldwin earned a Doctor of Science from Cornell University in 1895.

Career After completing her undergraduate education at Wellesley College, Stone moved back to Chicago where she worked at Hull House under Jane Addams. and head of the physics department at Sweet Briar College from 1915 to 1923. From 1908 to 1914, she and her sister Harriet Stone ran a school for American girls in Rome,

Stone's research focused on the electrical resistance and other properties of thin films.

Publications On the electrical resistance of thin films, January 1898, Physical Review, vol. VI, no. 30 Color in Platinum Films, July 1905, Physical Review (Series I), vol. 21, Issue 1, pp. 27–40 Properties of thin films when deposited in a vacuum

Personal life Stone lived with her sister Harriet Stone in Washington, D.C. and then in Miami in her later years. Some of her letters are in the papers of George B. Pegram at Columbia University.