Joan Curran

Joan Curran
Joan Curran at Newnham College
Born
Joan Elizabeth Strothers

(1916-02-26)26 February 1916
Swansea, Wales
Died10 February 1999(1999-02-10) (aged 82)
Glasgow, Scotland
Alma materNewnham College of University of Cambridge (B.A., M.A.)
Known forInvention of chaff
Work on proximity fuzes
SpouseSir Samuel Curran (m. 1940)
AwardsHonorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Strathclyde
Scientific career
InstitutionsCavendish Laboratory
Telecommunications Research Establishment
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Joan, Lady Curran (26 February 1916 – 10 February 1999), born Joan Elizabeth Strothers, was a Welsh physicist who played important roles in the development of radar and the atomic bomb during the Second World War. She devised a method of releasing chaff, a radar countermeasure technique credited with reducing losses among Allied bomber crews. She also worked on the development of the proximity fuse and the electromagnetic isotope separation process for the atomic bomb.

In 1954 she became a founding member of the Scottish Society for the Parents of Mentally Handicapped Children.