J. Virginia Lincoln

Jeannette Virginia Lincoln (September 7, 1915 – August 1, 2003) was an American physicist.^[1]

The daughter of Rush B. Lincoln, a major general in the US Air Force, and Jeannette Bartholomew Lincoln, a chemistry professor, she was born in Ames, Iowa. She studied at Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in physics from Wellesley College. Furthermore she received a master's degree from Iowa State University.^[2] From 1935 to 1942, she was an instructor in household equipment at Iowa State. In 1942, she began work in the Interservice Radio Propagation Laboratory (later renamed the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory or CRPL) at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Washington, D.C.; she transferred to the NBS in Boulder, Colorado when the CRPL was moved there in 1954. In 1959, she became Chief of Radio Warning Services. In the same year, she was the only woman in the US delegation to the International Geophysical Year meeting in Moscow. In 1966, she became director for the World Data Center for Solar-Terrestrial Physics. She later became the Solar-Terrestrial Physics division chief for NOAA's National Geophysical and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center. She retired from federal service in 1980.^[1]

Lincoln developed a statistical method for predicting sunspots which is still in use today. In 1973, she received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal for Distinguished Service.^[2] She was also named to the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.^[3]

Lincoln died in Boulder at the age of 87 on the first day of August in 2003 of natural causes .^[2][4]

Early life

J.Virginia Lincoln was born on September 7 in the year 1915, in Ames, Iowa. Her family had also accomplished a lot during their lives She had a brother who was five years younger than her and born in 1920. Their parents were Rush B. Lincoln and Jeannette Bartholomew Lincoln. Rush B. Lincoln was a Major General in the U.S. Air Force and a direct descendant of the brother of President Abraham Lincoln. J.Virginia Lincoln's mother taught Chemistry at Iowa State University. Their grandfather Lincoln fought in the Civil War as a Confederate Captain. Virginia was unsurprisingly deep into her family's military life and continued with this throughout her whole existence. In 1936 she received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Wellesley College and a master’s degree from Iowa State University in 1938. Simultaneously, she was an instructor in household equipment at Iowa State from 1936 to 1942. She was teaching people how to use all the new electronics and devices that came into their lives since they were relatively new to the world and people needed very specific knowledge and instruction on how to operate them properly.^[5]

Career

In the year 1942, Virginia joined the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (also known as a National Metrological Institute) in Washington, DC, working as a physicist in the Interservice Radio Propagation Laboratory (IRPL).^[6] There she did ionospheric research which was concerned with something known as the ionosphere which is the region of the earth's atmosphere between the stratosphere and the exosphere, consisting of multiple ionized layers and extending from about 50 to 250 miles (80 to 400 km) above the surface of the earth.^[7]

In 1946 the CRPL (Central Radio Propagation Laboratory) was created in order to keep information and research in a uniform place and to provide predictions in the field of radio propagation. These predictions included the investigation of solar and geophysical effects as well as ionospheric data. In the year 1954 CRPL moved to Boulder, Colorado and Lincoln's first job was a radio weather forecaster which was someone who prepared monthly ionospheric prediction contour maps. These predictions were used in selecting frequencies for long distance communications a foundation of the technology people use today. In 1949, Virginia helped create a statistical method for predicting sunspot activity that was so good that it is still used today to forecast solar storms that could possibly disrupt radio communication on Earth.^[8]

J. Virginia Lincoln was the only woman in the official United States delegation of fifty scientists to attend the 1958 meeting of the International Geophysical Year in Moscow, Russia. To add on, there were several women in the Russian delegation and Lincoln took great note of this difference between her country and Russia. In the year 1959, she became the Deputy Chief of the Radio Warning Services of the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory. In the modern day, The Central Radio Propagation Laboratory is known as The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS).^[9] There the research and engineering that enables the U.S. Government, national and international standards organizations, and many aspects of the private industry to manage the radio spectrum and ensure that innovative, new technologies are recognized and utilized. Lincoln was the very first woman to head a section in a federal bureau. Her area of expertise was in forecasting solar phenomena that affected the technology of radio communications.^[10]

Virginia while working as the director of the World Data Center for Solar-Terrestrial Physics and the Solar-Terrestrial Physics Division Chief for NOAA’s National Geophysical and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center, created a fascinating and great statistical method for predicting sunspots that are still used in modern times to forecast solar storms. From there she worked at the Data Center from 1966 until 1980, the year of her retirement. After Miss. Lincoln retired, she involved herself in several different activities such as the Boulder Historical Museum, traveled extensively throughout the world, and played golf.^[11]

References