Mabel Augusta Chase

alt=Sitting in the Wellesley physics laboratory, Chase places her hand on a glass photographic plate on a table below a Crookes tube, to take a radiograph of the bones in her hand. Chase places her hand on a glass photographic plate in an experiment done in the Wellesley physics laboratory. She is taking a radiograph of the bones in her hand.

Mabel Augusta Chase (October 11, 1865 – March 31, 1939) was an American physicist and university professor.

Biography

Early life Mabel Augusta Chase was born on October 11, 1865, in Lyndonville, New York. Her parents were Julia Augusta Spence and Frederick Augustus Chase. He taught at Fisk University, a historically black university, in Nashville and was also president of Lyons Female College in Clinton, Iowa. She then attended Cornell University, where she obtained her master's degree finishing in 1890. She wrote her dissertation on a subject that would be a common interest throughout her life: light. Specifically, the writing studied optics and the relationship between the shape of the human eye and the perception of color. Mount Holyoke College, and other Massachusetts area schools She was a professor at Mount Holyoke from 1906 to 1933 and achieved the title of Professor Emeritus. She was seen as the second in command of the physics department during her time and mentored students and other professors. Students described her as not very organized but very understanding and a good teacher. Her work throughout her career was varied but mostly centered around research and advancements in light and color. Her work on advanced topics in physics took her to other institutions, including the University of Chicago and the Imperial College of London. Their experiments were based on newly published work by German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen. a battery, glass plates and holders, and photographic chemicals to produce "shadow photographs" or x-ray images. Like her father before her, Chase was buried in Nashville, Tennessee.