Born: 13 December 1908, United Kingdom
Died: 15 October 1958
Country most active: New Zealand
Also known as: Elizabeth Somerville Caldwell
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Elizabeth Alexander was a geologist and radio astronomer who worked in radar in the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II.
She identified the ‘Norfolk Island Effect’, the phenomenon of a great increase in signal noise just before dawn.
Chronology
1931: Education – Bachelor of Science with Honours (BSc(Hons) First class in Geology from Newnham College, Cambridge
1934: Education – Ph.D. in Geology from Newnham College, Cambridge
1942: Life event – Emigrated to New Zealand with children to avoid conflict in Malaya
1942 – 1945: Career position – Head of the Operations Research Section of the Radio Development Laboratory, Wellington Operations Research Section of the Radio Development Laboratory