Janet Guernsey

Janet Brown Guernsey, born Janet Brown (March 2, 1913 – August 26, 2001), was a professor of physics at Wellesley College.

Early life and education Janet Brown Guernsey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1913. She attended the coeducational Germantown Friends School from kindergarten through high school.

Career In 1942 she took a "radio" (electronics) course at Wellesley, since she was living there and she thought it would give her a part-time job at Wellesley.

Before the 1950s, most women faculty members at the women's colleges were required to resign their positions upon marriage. Janet Guernsey was perhaps the first assistant professor at Wellesley who was married and also a mother of five.

Guernsey was active in the American Association of Physics Teachers. In 1973 she was elected vice president of the association, a position which would be followed by a year as president-elect and then a year as president. Guernsey succeeded Sherwood K. Haynes of Michigan State University as president in 1975-76. She was the second female president of the Association following Melba Phillips. Guernsey was also instrumental in restarting the New England Section of the Association, which has named an award for an outstanding high school or college physics teacher in her honor.