Jane Blankenship

Jane Carruth Blankenship (born June 20, 1936) is an American chemist. She won high science honors while at Oak Ridge High School before graduating in June 1958 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a B.S. in chemistry. She worked summers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where her father Dr. Forest F. Blankenship was a physical chemist, and then married Carl H. Gibson, a chemical engineer, and became employed as a spectroscopist for Lockheed Aircraft in Palo Alto, California.^[2]

Jane Blankenship
Born	Jane Carruth Blankenship (1936-06-20) June 20, 1936 (age 88) Lamar, Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Tennessee, Knoxville Stanford University
Spouse	Carl H. Gibson
Scientific career
Fields	Spectroscopy
Institutions	Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lockheed Aircraft
Thesis	Rotational Analysis of the 0-0 Band of the B2 Σ U -> X2 Σ g Transition of N+ 2 from Shock Tube Spectra.[1]  (1962)

Biography

Jane Carruth Blankenship and twin sister Elizabeth Ann Blankenship were born on June 20, 1936 in Lamar, Texas to Forrest Farle Blankenship and Margaret Berry Burke.^[3][4]

According to the 1940 U.S. Census, the Blankenship family resided in Lamar, Texas. Forest F. Blankenship, head of household, age 26, worked as a teacher in a public school and reported an annual income of $1800. Margrett Blankenship, her mother, age 29, did not report income or employment. Jane C. Blankenship, age 3, had a twin sister, Elizabeth A. Blankenship, age 3.^[5]

Jane Blankenship married Carl Gibson on 28 May 1958 at Roane County, Tennessee.^[6]

National attention

In 1961, a news story was written regarding “sex desegregation” in the sciences and a photograph of her was utilized to illustrate the critical significance of inspiring women to pursue careers in science.^[7][8]

As of 2008 Professor David Kaiser of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began offering a graduate level course titled “Cold War Science” that discussed the role women featured during the Cold War and included Jane Blankenship Gibson as an example.^[9]

Thesis

• Rotational Analysis of the 0-0 Band of the B2 Σ _U -> X2 Σ g Transition of N+ 2 from Shock Tube Spectra.^[1]

Selected publications

• Gibson, J. B., Goland, A. N., Milgram, M., & Vineyard, G. (1960). Dynamics of radiation damage. Physical Review, 120(4), 1229.
• Gibson, J. B., Goland, A. N., & Milgram, M. (1960). The Nature of Radiation Damage in FCC Metals 265 GH Vineyard. Phys. Rev. O, 12, 1229.
• Gibson, J. A. B. (1961). Liquid Scintillation Counting of Tritium in Urine. Physics in medicine and biology, 6(1), 55.
• Gibson, J. A. B. (1961). Detection of Tritium with a Film Dosemeter. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 6(2), 283.
• Gibson, Jane Blankenship. (1962). Rotational Analysis of the 0-0 Band of the B2 [sigma Subscript U]-> X2 [sigma] g Transition of N+ 2 from Shock Tube Spectra. Physical Sciences Program, Stanford University.
• Gibson, J. A. B. (1962). Measurement of the Gamma Radiation Background (No. AERE-R-4137). United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Research Group. Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Berks, England.
• Gibson, J. A. B. (1962). Gamma radiation background measurements - instrument selection. 1962.